Media Statements

We're grateful another family that was shattered by clergy crimes and cover ups is helping to prevent more crimes and cover ups. Each time a victim or witness calls police, files suit, or breaks silence, our society becomes a little bit safer for the most vulnerable among us.

Our hearts go out to this young victim, and we are outraged at the alleged actions of Rev. Warnakulasuriya. The emotional trauma caused by incidents like this often lead to a years-long recovery process.

It’s sad that in Germany, where hundreds of brave, wounded child sex abuse victims have spoken up in the last year, the pope can’t bring himself to openly address the most devastating crisis in modern church history.

Oregon’s 9th US Circuit Court has issued a mixed opinion in a case involving two accused pedophile priests. One of the clerics’ names will be publicly released, the other one’s identity will not be kept secret.

We applaud these brave, wounded men and women who are continuing to expose predators, warn families, protect kids, and educate the public about child molesting clerics and complicit Catholic officials.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered misdeeds by Pentecostal Bishop Charles Brown will come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect others and start recovering. If you have information that would either prove or disprove these allegations, it is your moral and civic duty to speak up now.

We wish Archbishop Buechlein well with his health struggles. At the same time, however, we are glad he’s stepping down  -- although we have little confidence that his successors - either the short term or long term ones -  will do much to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded in the Indianapolis archdiocese.

VaticanInsider.com reports that later this week, Pope Benedict will again meet with a small hand-picked group of abuse victims, this time in his native Germany.

We urge him not to.

The civil sex abuse trial of alleged Huntington Beach/Santa Barbara predator priests Gus Krumm and Alexander Manville begins Monday, September 19, 2011 in Orange County Superior Court, CX 105.

Libasci

Libasci moves from one of the nation’s most scandal-ridden dioceses to another. For more than 30 years, he was a priest in Rockeville Centre, a diocese whose officials were called “reprehensible” by an impartial citizen after a long grand jury investigation.