Group wants update on predator priests

• Group wants update on predator priests
• Bishop hasn’t disclosed anything for more than a year
• And SNAP pushes nun for more disclosure in religious orders
• Clergy abuse victims say one predator joins new local church
• SNAP says church hierarchy should warn his fellow parishioners

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will

--urge Toledo’s bishop to tell parishioners and the public – now and on a regular basis - the whereabouts and status of predator priests in the diocese,

--urge a Toledo nun – just elected to a national church post- to push for more disclosure of child molesting clerics who belong to religious orders, and

-- urge all Toledo Catholic officials to warn citizens and Catholics that a now defrocked pedophile priest is reportedly joining a Perrysburg parish

WHEN
Tuesday, April 3, 11:30 a.m.

WHO

Two-three members of a Chicago-based international support group called SNAP, including a Toledo native who is the group’s founder and president

WHERE

Outside the Toledo Catholic Diocese headquarters, 1933 Spielbusch,  in Toledo

WHY

In December 2010, and several times in years before, Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair has issued “updates” about the status of the diocese’s 31 publicly accused child molesting clerics. He has, however, not done so for more than a year. SNAP feels he should do so every year, at a minimum.  http://www.toledodiocese.org/index.php/tp-protect/1703

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2008_04_08_DioceseOfToledo_SexualAbuse_J_Michael_Tynan_ETC.htm

A concerned Catholic has informed SNAP, several times, that Dennis P. Gray, a now-defrocked serial predator priest, is joining Blessed John Catholic Church in Perrysburg, OH. The group wants Bishop Blair to use his diocesan website, parish bulletins and pulpit announcements to warn local citizens about Gray. (A Minnesota bishop did this recently regarding a similar pedophile priest, Fr. Thomas Adamson, in the Winona area.)

Gray was sued for molesting at least 11 boys from 1975-87. The cases were filed in 2002 and 2003 and the diocese admitted that the allegations were credible. He left the priesthood in 1987. In 2002 he was working for Toledo Public Schools as dean of students at a high school. Gray eventually surrendered his teaching certificate.

And a few days ago. The Blade reported that Sister Nancy Mathias, from the Toledo Catholic diocese, has been elected president of the National Conference of Vicars for Religious. This group interfaces between bishops and religious order clerics – like Jesuits and Franciscans – in each diocese. SNAP says, however, that religious order clerics are substantially less likely to be caught, reported, suspended or ousted when they molest kids. The organization wants Mathias to lobby her peers and insist that bishops disclose the child molesting religious order clerics in their dioceses and more aggressively seek out and help their victims.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&ved=0CCkQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toledoblade.com%2FReligion%2F2012%2F03%2F31%2FUrsuline-nun-to-lead-national-vicars-group.html&ei=Pyp6T_OrNKnM2AWOs_G1Bg&usg=AFQjCNEb7m353E7vKBHPdRqCswMVIJZd4g

SNAP doesn’t object to Gray belonging to a parish. But the group believes Toledo Catholic officials have a moral duty to warn parishioners and the public about him.