Group seeks help from CA bishops

• Group leaflets outside mass
• It seeks help from all 12 California bishops
• SNAP: “Help us find those hurt by Irish Brothers”
• Big Catholic religious order declares bankruptcy
• It’s run at least 3 schools in the state, 1 in Vallejo, 1 in Salinas
• So those hurt by clerics face an August 1 deadline
• ‘Last chance’ to expose predators, self help group says
• Kids abused at the schools should “speak up & seek justice,” SNAP urges

What:
As church-goers leave Mass, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand out fliers about child sex crimes and cover ups. The fliers disclose that

-- a controversial Catholic group ran a Bay Area school, and

-- that group operates dozens of US parochial schools & is in bankruptcy.

The victims will also

-- explain how the group is seeking to avoid embarrassing child sex abuse trials, and

-- urge Oakland, Sacramento & SF Catholic officials to aggressively seek out anyone who was hurt by their current and former clerics, and

--beg every northern California Catholic parishioner to try to help them find alums from three California schools who might have been sexually violated there.

When:
Thursday, May 10 at 12:20 pm

Where:
Outside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, 1111 Gough St.  (at Geary) in  San Francisco

Who:
Four to five victims of child sex abuse and their supporters who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including an Illinois woman who is the group's founder and president

Why:
SNAP has learned that a huge and controversial Catholic religious order, the New York-based Irish Christian Brothers (ICB), ran a Catholic school in Vallejo for years. A judge has set an August deadline for anyone who may have been molested there, or at two other similar schools in CA and dozens of others across the US, to step forward and seek justice.

The school is St. Peter and St. Vincent (1500 Benicia Road, http://www.spsv.org/index.htm). It’s now run by the Sacramento diocese. But for a decade (1983 to 1993), it was operated by the ICB. The ICB also runs Palma High School in Salinas and used to run Cantwell High School in Los Angeles. Former staff at each has been accused of sexually violating students.

http://egpnews.com/2012/03/last-chance-for-possible-abuse-victims-at-montebello-catholic-school/ 

Last April, the Brothers declared bankruptcy. SNAP believes its goal is to avoid embarrassing public child sex abuse and cover up trials. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014949804_christianbros04m.html

SNAP is urging all victims from the schools to come forward and get help immediately, regardless of when it occurred. Because of the arbitrary nature of the bankruptcy deadline - called a "bar date" - victims only have a short time to speak up, get help and expose wrongdoing that took place at the school. Cardinal Hayes High School is listed as a institution subject to the bankruptcy on the official Irish Christian Brothers creditors' website. http://www.omnimanagementgroup.com/CMSVol/CMSDocs/pub_46342/288432_Revised%20List%20of%20CBI-CBOI%20Schools.PDF

And SNAP is writing to all 12 California bishops urging them to use their “vast resources” to reach out the victims from current and former Christian Brothers’ schools.

Though the Christian Brothers are not formally under the direct supervision of any particular diocese, they work/have worked in dioceses with the local bishop’s approval. So SNAP is urging California prelates to “aggressively seek out and comfort” others who may have been hurt by Christian Brothers and to “spread the word” about the August deadline.

SNAP says that it has found proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting clerics at virtually every other current or former US Irish Christian Brothers’ school it has researched.