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SNAP Call for Action to Support California Assembly Bill 2295

SNAP Call for Action to Support California AB 2295

Elimination of Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse Crimes

Request for Emails and Letters to California Assembly Members on the Public Safety Committee 

AB 2295, authored by Assembly Member Dawn Addis, will likely have its first policy hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee in late March. We need to write letters to the Committee Members NOW urging their Yes vote on this bill!


Claim Deadline for San Francisco Archdiocese Bankruptcy Coming Up SOON!

Last chance for restitution!

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has set a final deadline of February 20, 2024, for the Archdiocese of San Francisco to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. If you did not file a lawsuit in the recently closed civil window, this is your last chance for restitution. If you were abused before August 21, 2023, and you have not filed a lawsuit or do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Archdiocese. Additional information is pasted below.


Abused in the Catholic Archdiocese of Batimore, Maryland?

Last chance for restitution!

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Maryland, has set a final deadline of May 31, 2024, for the Archdiocese of Baltimore to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. This is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Archdiocese.


Abused in the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, California?

Last chance for restitution!

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has set a final deadline of February 20, 2024, for the Archdiocese of San Francisco to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. If you did not file a lawsuit in the recently closed civil window, this is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Archdiocese. Additional information is pasted below.


REMINDER: Deadline for claims against the Diocese of Santa Rosa in TWO WEEKS

Last chance for restitution!

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has set a final deadline of October 20, 2023, for the Diocese of Santa Rosa to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. If you did not file a lawsuit in the recently closed civil window, this is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Diocese. Additional information, and the link to file a claim, is pasted below.


Running for SNAP

  

 

Charlie Macko of Berkeley, California, raised over $2000 "Running for SNAP" this summer! We are very grateful for his efforts on our behalf, and we also hope that some of you might consider doing something similar.


Abused in the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa, California?

Last chance for restitution!

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has set a final deadline of October 20, 2023, for the Diocese of Santa Rosa to receive claims from survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or others. If you did not file a lawsuit in the recently closed civil window, this is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Diocese. Additional information is pasted below.

 


Grand Jury Reports Only Scratch the Surface

Septemver 7, 2023 

By: Paige N. Eppenstein Anderson

 

I have a confession to make. Despite drifting away from the Catholic Church a few decades ago, I still read AmericaThe Jesuit Review on a regular basis. There are days when I wonder why -- perhaps because I was partially educated by Jesuits? Or because of my deep Catholic cultural roots that just won't wither?  These days I read with a newer lens as an abuse survivor, after finally recognizing/acknowledging the sexual, spiritual, and emotional abuse inflicted by a lay teacher at my Diocese of Allentown school, Msgr. Bornemann Memorial Central Catholic High School in Reading, PA. 

 

With the survivor lens in mind, my curiosity was piqued by Kevin Clarke's article, "The Complicated Legacy of State investigations of the Catholic sex abuse crisis." I began reading with an open mind; after all, over the last three years, I have come to know numerous survivors whose stories were included in the PA Grand Jury Report (my high school and local parish were hubs for abusive clergy). Their stories laid bare the web of moral and ethical corruption in various Catholic dioceses in PA. 

 

As I read further into the article, Clarke introduced Ms. Daly, a pastoral associate for a suburban Philadelphia parish. I found my jaw dropping as she noted that "people are jaded" and "We live in a sea of accusations and counter-accusations, news reports speaking to one reality while our parishes try to live something completely different. Who to believe? What to believe? Who knows?" The rhetorical question is even asked: "Why are they dragging this up again?" 

 

The Grand Jury reports produced recently in states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Maryland reveal the human stories behind the institutional bait and switch and rampant corruption. Sure, the church has put in place zero tolerance policies and annual safe environment trainings, as Ms. Daly noted. However, abusers still lurk in plain sight in parishes, diocesan non-profits, Catholic schools, and more -- participating in safe environment trainings and trying to blend into obscurity. This is exactly what my perpetrator did, evading any consequences for two and a half decades. The problem is more than just clergy, it is the systemic, poisonous culture of abuse in the Catholic Church coursing through the veins of the Body of Christ. As the poison spreads, it is absorbed by the entire Body which allows its members and leaders to turn a blind eye to a seemingly incurable illness. 

 


Abused in the Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA?

 

The Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has set a final deadline of September 11, 2023, for survivors of clergy sexual abuse to file claims against the Diocese of Oakland. If you did not file a lawsuit in the recently closed civil window, this is your last chance for restitution. If you do not file a claim and the bankruptcy proceeds to its conclusion, you will be permanently barred from taking action against the Diocese. Additional information is pasted below.

Notice in English

Aviso En Español

Notice in Vietnamese

Claim Filing Process

Sexual Abuse Claim Notice Package

Please take notice, on July 25, 2023, the court entered the Order Establishing Deadlines for Filing Proofs of Claim and Approving the Form and Manner of Notice Thereof [Docket No. 293]. Per the Order, please find below links to the documents contained in the Sexual Abuse Claim Notice Package.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF SEXUAL ABUSE CLAIMS

Filed Official Proof of Claim Forms, the Supplement, and the information contained herein will be kept confidential under the Bar Date Order.

However, the Official Proof of Claim Form and the Supplement may be provided, pursuant to confidentiality procedures approved by the Bankruptcy Court, to the Debtor, the Committee, their respective counsel, the United States Trustee, and to such other persons as the Bankruptcy Court may authorize on a confidential basis. In addition, the Official Proof of Claim Form and the Supplement may be required to be disclosed to governmental authorities under mandatory reporting laws in many jurisdictions. If any such disclosure is made to a governmental authority, Sexual Abuse Claimants will be notified at the time of the disclosure of their Official Proof of Claim Form and the Supplement.

YOU SHOULD CONSULT AN ATTORNEY IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, INCLUDING WHETHER YOU HAVE A CLAIM OR WHETHER YOU MUST FILE A PROOF OF CLAIM. HOLDERS OF SEXUAL ABUSE CLAIMS MAY ALSO OBTAIN INFORMATION FROM COUNSEL FOR THE OFFICIAL COMMITTEE OF UNSECURED CREDITORS, LOWENSTEIN SANDLER LLP, BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO JEFFREY PROL AT [email protected], BRENT WEISENBERG AT [email protected] OR COLLEEN RESTEL AT [email protected].


SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand makes public submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa New Zealand made a Public Submission to the country's Royal Commission on Monday, July 31, 2023. The contents of the submission are set forth below. We here at SNAP USA applaud this worthy endeavor, and we hope that the Commission both examines it and adopts it.

 


SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant