Media Statements

For immediate release: Thursday, August 8, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

Shame on the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn and the board and staff of St. Francis Prep for trying to intimidate victims of sexual abuse and harassment.

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 7

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, [email protected])

Fr. Alejandro Flores, a convicted Joliet predator priest, has been deported to Bolivia. Those who enabled him to hurt kids, however, are escaping scot-free.

(We believe he has not been defrocked. So he should be referred to as “Fr. Flores.” He is NOT, we believe, “a former Catholic priest.” We believe he’s still being paid.)

For immediate release: August 7, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

More victims have signed up in a civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against a prestigious Manhattan high school.

The suit charges that crimes by principal Rabbi George Finkelstein and teacher Rabbi Macy Gordon have been concealed by Yeshiva University High School for decades.

For immediate release: August 7, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 [email protected]

Religious figures attack a man who reported “serial physical and sexual abuse of children covered up" by church officials” claiming that his account is slander and “unbiblical”.

Brent Detwiler filed a lawsuit in January against the Sovereign Grace Ministries, a national network of churches, saying that the defendants, despite knowing the facts on multiple child abuse cases, “cared more about protecting its financial and institutional standing than about protecting children, its most vulnerable members” and therefore “failed to stop repeated and ongoing sexual predation occurring at SGM churches and organization”.

For immediate release: August 6, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 [email protected]

A man credibly accused of sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl and was found with possession of child pornography was freed today by a judge in Essex asserting that victim was at fault. 

For immediate release: August 6, 2013

Statement by SNAP director David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected])

A man’s report of clergy sexual misconduct at a seminary is preventing a Catholic priest from taking over a New Jersey parish.

In June, Paterson Catholic diocese officials announced that Fr. Brando Ibarra would head St. Jude’s parish in Budd Lake. But after David Fagersten of Chicago complained to Mount Olive officials that Fr. Ibarra tried to rape him years ago, Fr. Ibarra has opted to not take the Budd Lake assignment.

For immediate release: August 6, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

A Chicago man’s report of clergy sexual misconduct at a Chicago seminary is preventing a Catholic priest from taking over a parish in New Jersey.

For immediate release: Tuesday, Aug. 6

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, [email protected])

Once again, smart and aggressive lawyering has protected top Catholic officials from having to answer in court for their repeated and reckless secrecy and complicity in a troubling child sex abuse and cover up case.

The 11 year old case of Joe V. Doe v. the Holy See, filed in Oregon federal court, has been withdrawn.

Fortunately, however, a similar case in the UK is proceeding. It involves a woman who was sexually assaulted by Father Wilfred Baldwin.

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 [email protected]

For immediate release August 6, 2013

A 14-year-old girl reported to police in April that the pastor, who also worked at Kanawha County Schools, had inappropriately touched her.

Aug. 5, 2013

Dear Bishop Braxton:

You and your brother bishops have repeatedly pledged to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex abuse. Yet you refuse to tell your flock

--that no Belleville predator priest is being housed and monitored by the diocese,

--that other dioceses do, in fact, house and monitor predator priests,

--that only two Belleville predator priests have been defrocked,

--that six or seven of Belleville predator priests are still on the payroll, and

-- how many victims have contacted you or how much you’re spending on their therapy. (The last such figures, provided by your predecessor, are almost a decade old).