MA- O'Malley calls SNAP “angry & hurt” - SNAP responds

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Statement by Phil Saviano (617-983 5075) of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests 

In a derisive put-down, Boston's top Catholic official is criticizing the motives of thousands of members of our self-help group. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/cardinal-omalley-immigrant-outreach-on-mexican-border-inspired-by-pope-francis/2014/04/01/55456b74-b91e-11e3-899e-bb708e3539dd_story.html 

In an interview published late yesterday by the Washington Post, Cardinal Sean O'Malley dismissed our well-founded skepticism about the latest Catholic abuse panel by claiming that our organization is “very hurt and very angry.”

For a quarter century, we've helped expose the complicity of hundreds of Catholic officials in thousands of heinous child sex crimes. So it's tempting and convenient for most of them to portray us as “angry.” The truth is, however, that most of us are passionate . . . about the safety of children. That's what drives us. And we're deeply – and justifiably – disappointed that after nearly 30 years of widely-reported and extensively-documented callous cover ups by seemingly countless Catholic clerics, Pope Francis is setting up yet-another church panel to study abuse.

It's been said that the best defense is a good offense. So we're not surprised that O'Malley tries to discredit and dismiss us. In so doing, he joins a long list of his church colleagues who know they can't defend the indefensible so instead they attack the messengers.

(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])