Chile- Vatican says bishop is innocent of child abuse, SNAP responds
For immediate release: Monday, June 23, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])
Catholic officials say that a Chilean bishop is innocent of child sexual abuse. We are skeptical of this claim and hope anyone with additional information will come forward immediately.
Bishop Cristian Contreras Molina of San Felipe Chile was accused of sexually abusing minors earlier this year. Both the Vatican and the district attorney concluded their investigations into those allegations.
It takes a great deal of courage to report child sexual crimes and they are rarely made lightly.
We hope anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered child sexual abuse by any Chilean Catholic official will immediately call secular law enforcement. It is never too late to report what you know and doing so will help keep other children safe.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 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]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])
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