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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.

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.

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.

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 America: The 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. 

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.

• Sexual Abuse Bar Date Notice
• Official Proof of Claim Form
• Optional Supplement to Official Proof of Claim Form
• Committee Letter

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].

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.

Upper Hutt, New Zealand

7 June 2023

His Holiness Pope Francis

Casa Santa Marta

00120 Vatican City State

Your Holiness, tēnā koe!

Once again, we send you warm greetings from Aotearoa New Zealand.

We draw your attention to our prior letters in which we requested an external inquiry to test the authenticity of your Church’s redress and healing scheme for clergy and religious abuse survivors in New Zealand, Te Houhanga Rongo/A Path to Healing (APTH).

Again, we are disappointed to not have had the courtesy of an acknowledgement or response.

In our letter, we alleged that the APTH process set up by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference and Congregational Leaders Conference of Aotearoa New Zealand was being used to deliberately foil and dismiss legitimate survivor complaints through a circuitous and secretive process.

There will be a free screening of the powerful documentary PROCESSION in Overland Park, KS on June 2, 2023 at 7 PM.

 

The documentary, PROCESSION, is currently streaming on Netflix. This is the story of a group of men - many of whom are from Kansas - who are all survivors of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 

 

There has never been a screening of the film in the Kansas City area until now. The free screening of PROCESSION is on June 2, 2023 at 7 PM at the Glenwood Arts Theater in Overland Park, KS. 

 

The men will all be there, as will the director of the film.

 

There will be a Q&A, to provide an opportunity to speak to the audience about the impact of Kansas House Bill 2127 as well as any future legislative efforts on the behalf of sexual abuse survivors. 

 

WHAT:     FREE SCREENING of PROCESSION

WHEN:    FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2023, 7:00 PM

WHERE:  GLENWOOD ARTS CENTER, OVERLAND PARK, KS

                 Ranch Market Shopping Center

                 3707 W 95th St, Overland Park, KS 66206

                 Map Link: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18975/map

 

Please sign up and register to attend at: https://www.processionfilm.com/kansasscreening

 

Thank you so much for showing your support to the brave men in PROCESSION, and to all childhood sexual abuse survivors.

 

April 19, 2023

Dear Bishop McGovern:

 As you are no doubt aware, this spring marks the 30th anniversary of the early, dramatic and traumatic disclosures that led to the removal, over just a few years, of nearly 10% of the Belleville clergy because of credible reports of child sex abuse. Equally jarring to many were the persistent and effective cover ups of those crimes for decades by your predecessors.

This happened nearly a decade before the 2002 eruption of the Catholic church's abuse and concealment crisis that began in Boston with the Globe's thorough investigation.

 In effect, the hierarchy of the Belleville diocese was given an opportunity to reveal and wrestle with the scandal far sooner than many other church institutions across the country.

 (And the crisis in your diocese continues, Bishop. In the last four years, at least four Belleville clerics were arrested, suspended, charged with or publicly 'outed' as credibly accused abusers (Fr. Thomas Miller, Fr. Arthur Neimeyer, Fr. Anthony Onyango, Deacon Robert J. Lanter).