Media Statements

Clergy sex abuse victims are asking the Missouri Supreme Court to block or limit demands by Kansas City Catholic officials for potentially hundreds or thousands of pages of their self help group’s records. And they’re picking up support from widely disparate sources.

Our hearts ache for Jim Keenan. He fought a six-year-long heroic battle to expose predators warn parents, and protect kids. But somehow, the privacy of wrongdoer seems to trump the safety of children.

We are grateful that Msgr. Lynn was not able to escape with the minimum sentence for his years of concealing heinous crimes against children. But cover ups would be better deterred had he gotten the maximum penalty, and justice would have been better served.

It’s deceitful and insulting for Bishop Bransfield to claim he has “tangible proof” that the allegations against him are false. Bransfield has no sworn affidavits, notarized statements or even signed letters. He has two Catholic men who haven't faced real scrutiny or questioning and who say he never molested them.

We are grateful to this brave survivor for coming forward and revealing his abuse. It is a very difficult thing to make allegations of this sort public, but it is an important part of finding others who may have been in similar circumstances. We hope anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes at the hands of Fr. William Authenreith to immediately come forward and make a report to police.

We are grateful to the Philadelphia District Attorney's office for moving ahead with this retrial and not letting Fr. James Brennan to escape justice. It is very rare that victims of clergy sex abuse are able to see their abuser tried in a criminal trial, so we are very glad that Mr. Williams is still seeking justice for his victims.

When money was misspent at SMU, play is suspended. But when boys are raped and crimes are concealed at PSU, play continues. This sends absolutely the wrong signal. We're very disappointed that there's no suspension of football. That's the most effective deterrent to current and future cover-ups.

Tomorrow, the NCAA will reportedly announce penalties for Penn State. It can't be any simpler. Want to protect innocent kids? Push for the maximum penalty. Want to protect corrupt officials? Push for a something less.

Late yesterday, the California Second Appellate District Court  ruled that Los Angeles Archdiocese officials cannot block the release of confidential priest files of 25 known, admitted, or jailed child molesting clerics.