CA--Victims praise ruling on Catholic abuse records

August 04, 2015
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For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 4
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected], [email protected])
A newspaper has won in its battle to force secretive Catholic officials to release records in a clergy sex abuse and cover up case. We are grateful for this ruling. And we’re disgusted that Monterey Catholic officials continue to protect predators.
We applaud the judge and the Monterey County Weekly, which filed a motion to rescind a secrecy clause sought and won by church officials in a case against Fr. Edward Fitz-Henry. We hope the newspaper’s victory will encourage other news outlets to take similar steps to expose Catholic church deceit, recklessness, callousness and secrecy.
The newspaper says “In exchange for his resignation, Fitz-Henry received a financial settlement from the Diocese, the terms of which have never been disclosed.”
We also hope this victory will embolden others who have been hurt by child molesting Catholic clerics in the Monterey diocese to step forward, expose predators, protect kids and deter cover ups by taking legal action against clerics who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.
Ordained in Ireland, Fr. Fitz-Henry worked in Monterey, Salinas, Big Sur, Carmel and San Luis Obispo.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected], [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])
Documents in Case of Sexual Abuse by a Priest to Be Made Public, Under C.A. Ruling
By a MetNews Staff Writer, Metropolitan News-Enterprise - Tuesday, August 4, 2015
The Sixth District Court of Appeal has affirmed an order that confidential discovery responses by the Roman Catholic Diocese in Monterey, in an action by a man who was a minor when he was allegedly sexually abused by a priest in 2004 and 2005, be turned over to a local newspaper.
The opinion was handed down Friday and was not . . .

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