MA- Fundraiser set for clergy sex victims' group

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 

For more information: Barbara Blaine, SNAP Founder and President (312)399-4747, [email protected] and David Clohessy, SNAP Executive Director (314) 566-9790 cell, [email protected]

Fundraiser set for victims' group

In honor of SNAP 25th anniversary

Group's founder & president will speak

Massachusetts Citizens for Children is hosting a lecture and fundraiser this Sunday (March 23) to mark and honor the 25th anniversary of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The event will be held at New England Law (classroom 301), 154 Stuart Street in Boston MA from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.  Admission is a donation to SNAP (suggested amount is $25). 

Barbara Blaine of Chicago, who founded SNAP, will speak. Other speakers include Vince Warren, Executive Director of Center for Constitutional Rights and retired Detroit Bishop Tom Gumbleton. Warren's group helped SNAP submit testimony to the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child about the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse and cover up scandal.

Gumbleton is the only Catholic prelate in the US to acknowledge having been molested as a child himself. He has helped SNAP lobby for legislative reforms that make it easier for child sex abuse victims to file lawsuits.

“We are deeply grateful to our friends at Massachusetts Citizens for Children for supporting us and for their outstanding work to protect kids too,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP's director.

(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 15,000 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 (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747,[email protected]), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, [email protected]), Joelle Casteix (949-322-7434, [email protected])


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