Detroit Archbishop Elected as Vice-President of USCCB, SNAP Reacts
The head of the Archdiocese of Detroit has won the vice presidency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. We are deeply disappointed at the message this choice sends to wounded victims and betrayed parishioners.
Earlier this year, our group pointed out that Archbishop Allen Vigneron left about 30 names of accused child molesting clerics off his list, even though they live/lived or work/worked in his archdiocese. That was almost nine months ago. The archbishop does not appear to have added any of them to his list.
Six years ago, we urged Archbishop Vigneron to aggressively seek out victims of Br. Stephen Baker. A Franciscan, Br. Baker is said to have sexually abused "dozens, if not hundreds" of students, mostly male.
As best we can tell, the archbishop never did.
Given his advanced age and his awful track record, we hope Archbishop Vigneron will upend tradition and NOT try, in three years, to ascend to the presidency of the USCCB. If he does run, we hope he is soundly defeated.
CONTACT: Zach Hiner, Executive Director (517-974-9009, [email protected])
(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org.)