Media Statements

For Immediate Release July 25, 2024

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Missouri volunteer director of SNAP, 314 566 9790, [email protected]

We commend these wounded survivors for their courageous efforts to protect kids by exposing clergy who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.

We are very grateful to them because any information about clergy sex crimes and cover ups is an immense gift to parents, police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public. Girls and boys are safer now because these victims are speaking up and filing suits.

We’re not surprised that dozens more victims are now finding the strength to step forward and seek justice. It’s long been obvious that hundreds of clergy abuse victims are still suffering in shame, silence and self-blame, numbing their deep pain through drugs, alcohol, agoraphobia, anorexia and other self-destructive behavior. It’s also long been obvious that child abuse victims come forward when they are able to remember, recognize and deal with it, and not before.

For Immediate Release July 24, 2024 

During this presidential campaign, we hope that both major political parties will commit to a crackdown on child sexual abuse. Governments and law enforcement have powerful tools if they choose to exercise them. 

We call on both political parties to take action to protect our communities, as well as to support those who have been grievously harmed by sexual abuse. We also call on them to make stronger laws and enforce them to keep our communities safe. Our politicians can learn from what went wrong in the past to improve their policies and actions that will keep children and the vulnerable safer. Each of our candidates for higher office should commit to this change, now. 

SNAP, in conjunction with KeepKidsSafe.org and others, a blueprint for federal reform was developed. We hope that both candidates will read and endorse the suggested changes. Together, we can make the future safer for today's children. 

CONTACT: Mike McDonnell, SNAP Communications Director ([email protected], 267-261-0578), Shaun Dougherty, PA Survivor & SNAP Interim Executive Director ([email protected], 814- 341-8386) 

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for more than 35 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

For immediate release: July 18, 2024

Reports emerged this week that a Catholic priest, dubbed the "conscience of France," has been accused of sexually assaulting and harassing women -- and at least one under-aged girl -- for decades. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, can only wonder if earlier complaints were ignored.

Henri-Antoine Groues, known as Abbé Pierre, was a Catholic priest who renounced wealth to campaign for the homeless and became one of France's most revered men before dying at age 94 in 2007. Yesterday, it was publicly revealed for the first time by Emmaüs International, founded by Abbé Pierre, that six women, and one child, had reported acts of sexual assault or harassment between the end of the 1970s and 2005. Emmaüs said that they believed the accusations and stood by the victims.

We cannot help but compare this to the earlier case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whose sexual abuse of adult men went ignored for decades until a boy came forward with similar claims. We know that in a book and a TV interview Abbé Pierre made oblique references to the vow of celibacy, indicating that he might have broken it. That would have been at least 17 years ago. While we believe that assaults on adults by trusted clergy result in great harm and should be addressed immediately, Church officials should also pay attention because some of those who prey on men and women will harm boys and girls as well.

For immediate release: July 15, 2024

The criminal case against an ex-Dubuque priest accused of multiple counts of child sexual abuse was dismissed today. There was no ruling on the accusations, just a decision that the case was beyond the criminal statute of limitations. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is disappointed that once again an accused clergyman was able to avoid facing his accusers in court.

 Although Fr. Leo P. Riley had denied the charges and pleaded not guilty, we know that false accusations of child sexual abuse are rare, multiple false accusations are even rarer. We believe and stand with the brave survivors who came forward to accuse this cleric. Despite Fr. Riley’s attorney's claiming that there was “no evidence” that the clergyman committed these crimes, the truth is that the testimony of these courageous victims would have been evidence.

 Many secular reports and individual investigations across the globe have shown that the Catholic Church protected perpetrators over children. Far too many stories highlight how this religious institution knew of child sexual abuse by clergymen, but did not report the crimes to law enforcement or remove the offenders from ministry. Effectively, this allowed accused abusers to continue to work for years. Instead, Church officials moved accused offenders to other parishes, dioceses, and states, or even out of the country.

For immediate release: July 15, 2024

In 2018, then Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the results of a grand jury investigation into sexual abuse within six diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the state. This report, revealing widespread assaults on children by clergy and cover-ups by Church officials, shocked the world. It also forced bishops from coast to coast into greater transparency, and inspired Attorney General’s across the country to open their own statewide investigations. The Grand Jury revelations of continuing, systemic cover-up in Pennsylvania, has since been duplicated in other states.

The report included a list of recommendations, among them, and perhaps most important, opening a "civil window,” which would give child sexual abuse victims a second chance to file lawsuits for damages against their perpetrators and those who enabled them. This “look back” legislation for now-adult victims of childhood sexual abuse, who are locked out of the courts by archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations, is central both to protecting children and to delivering justice. Similar windows in other states have not only brought many more survivors forward, but, more importantly, revealed “hidden perpetrators” who remain a threat to today’s youth.

Representative Mark Rozzi (D) and Representative Jim Gregory (R), both survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sponsored and passed the recommended window legislation. This took an almost three year, bi-partisan effort. In 2020, just when we believed we would see this initiative on the general election ballot, we were informed that because of an administrative error by the office of the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, this was an impossibility. Making matters worse, we also learned that the entire multi-year process would have to begin again from scratch. 

For immediate release, New Zealand, 8 July 2024

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Aotearoa New Zealand, known as SNAP, has made public its letter to the Vatican about a presumed investigation into child sexual assault allegations against Cardinal John Dew, former Archbishop of Wellington.

SNAP wrote to the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Disciplinary Sector, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, responsible for dealing with sexual abuse complaints against clergy. 

A copy of the letter was published on the SNAP Oceania website.

The letter expressed concerns that the Dicastery interviewed only the alleged offender and that another coverup has occurred, this time between the New Zealand Catholic hierarchy, the Vatican, and a Catholic Religious Order known as the Sisters of Mercy.

“To say that your current outcome is a whitewash is an understatement,” SNAP wrote to Fernández. “Protecting the hierarchy at the expense of the people makes it plain that the bona fides of the Dicastery are skewed in favour the hierarchy,” the survivors said.

The letter also urged the Dicastery to reopen this matter. “We urge the Dicastery to publish its report on John Dew. Justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done,” the letter stressed.

For immediate release: June 27, 2024

The Supreme Court of the United States today ruled that “U.S. bankruptcy law doesn't afford bankruptcy courts the kind of power needed to block lawsuits against parties who haven't filed for bankruptcy.” SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believes the Court made the correct decision, and that it will help survivors whose lawsuits for child sexual abuse have been shifted into bankruptcy court.

The ruling in the case invalidated a bankruptcy deal involving Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, and members of the Sackler family, who owned the drug firm. However, it is likely to impact the resolution of other bankruptcy cases as well. Institutions like the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, that filed for protection in the wake of thousands of lawsuits for child sexual abuse, will be affected by this decision. In fact, both filed briefs in support of upholding the Purdue Pharma deal.

For immediate release, New Zealand, 24 June 2024

The New Zealand Catholic Church’s National Safeguarding and Professional Standards Committee (NSPSC), responsible for the Church’s sexual abuse redress protocol—TEHOUHANGA RONGO / A PATH TO HEALING (APTH), together with the Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS) set up to coordinate responses to complaints under APTH, have been accused by survivors of foiling complaints, reports the survivors advocacy network SNAP.

Victims and survivors of clerical and religious sexual abuse who decided to reach out to the New Zealand Catholic Church for healing, say church investigations into their complaints are being obstructed by NSPSC and NOPS, as the principles established in APTH are still not being properly observed, and APTH procedures are still not being followed.

SNAP reports that one APTH complainant recently received a letter from a lawyer instructed by both NSPSC and NOPS threatening to “discontinue the inquiry into your complaints,” after the complainant questioned NOPS’s handling of the investigative process.

The complainant claimed, “investigators were prevented by NOPS from gathering the evidence and making the necessary inquiries.”

For immediate release: June 16, 2024

The founding pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, has been accused of sexually abusing a young girl beginning in 1982, when she was just 12 years old. He was a young, married pastor with a child of his own at the time. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, applauds this survivor for coming forward. Her courage will help to protect today’s children.

Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch that Pastor Robert Morris began sexually abusing her on Christmas Day, 1982, and that the assaults continued for four-and-a-half years. Pastor Morris said in a statement that “When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.” We wish to remind Pastor Morris that this was not “inappropriate sexual behavior.” This was a crime.