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It is always great to be recognized for doing an exceptional job because exceptional jobs require exceptional effort, commitment and time. When those exceptional acts benefit many people, that recognition is shared with all those who are affected. It is truly a cause for a celebration!

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

It’s difficult for an adult to admit that they have been conned. We know not to give out our personal information on the phone or worry about scams that we have heard of….such as the grandchild who calls out of the blue and needs money because they’ve been in an accident. People who are generous, kind-hearted, and honest tend to be more naïve when it comes to someone trying to pull something over on them because they themselves would not do that to someone.

SNAP Leader Patti Koo who supports folks in the San Antonio and New Braunfels areas of Texas wrote an article for the Texas Crime Victim's Clearinghouse that has been published in the latest issue. Read her story below!

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

I’m currently reading, “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church’s 2,000 Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse”. It is an eye-opening history of priests and sex in the Catholic Church.

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

While talking to a male survivor one day, I was told that he was awarded money for the emotional pain and suffering he experienced as a result of the abuse he suffered as a young man.

As the Coronavirus continues to rage across the globe and our neighbors, colleagues, and friends start practicing things like “social distancing,” self-quarantines, and work-from-home, this can lead to something that many survivors are all-too-familiar with: isolation.

Written by Rosemary O'Grady.

The Full Bench of the High Court sitting in Canberra this week is listed to hear the Appeal in M112/19 Pell and The Queen on Wednesday 11^th March.

When the Pell ‘appeal against conviction’ pursuant to S. 276 (1) (a) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic) lost 2:1 in the Supreme Court of Victoria: Court of Appeal in August 2019, much comment was devoted to observations that the determining majority, comprising Chief  Justice Ferguson and Court of Appeal President Maxwell, were not lawyers with long, specific expertise in Criminal Law.  Busy retired and recalled Appeal Justice Mark Weinberg, by contrast, was expert in the field.  Such comment seemed aimed at inducing a general preference for the Weinberg position, set-out in a remarkably long dissenting judgement, detailing in embarrassing application just what was wrong with the Crown case against George Pell – in the learned Appeal Judge’s opinion.

SNAP has been in Aotearoa New Zealand now for the past eight months. Many people in Aotearoa New Zealand still do not know about SNAP here or the service we provide the local communities because we are still new to the Aotearoa victims and survivors scene. But the need for our work here is evident.

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

When I first joined SNAP, I felt like a fraud. Here were people who were raped when they were children trying to heal from horrific acts and bravely facing the church in a one-step forward, two-steps back struggle for justice and prevention. There’s not much worse than taking advantage and hurting the innocent and the helpless. Here I was, an adult who had been duped by a crazy priest who I thought had used his position to control his love life out of what I believed to be guilt and fear.

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

It took a long time for me to wake up. Long after my abuse and harassment had ceased, I was still asleep. I still believed it was my fault and that what had happened with Fr. Jade was just the fact that he had feelings for me which he could not deal with. I had an explanation, I thought, for everything. I still missed him. I still thought….maybe if I had done something different, things wouldn’t have turned out this way.