MO--Archbishop does interviews in KC; SNAP responds
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, [email protected])
The new head of the Kansas City MO Catholic diocese, in his first interviews since taking the reins is talking about fundraising, low-balling expectations, and equating the suffering of abuse victims and church staff.
http://kcur.org/post/archbishop-joseph-naumann-looks-heal-raise-funds-kansas-city-st-joseph-diocese
He’s got it all backwards. Job one is protecting kids. Fundraising and healing can and should come later.
And when children are safer, fundraising and healing will happen on their own.
At this juncture, it’s unseemly for Naumann to try and woo betrayed donors.
Naumann says there are wounds “on both sides.” That of course minimizes the pain of boys and girls who were raped and sodomized by priests and betrayed by bishops. This isn’t a battle between combatants of equal power, skills and resources. This is a long horror of child sex crimes and cover ups. Whatever hurt adult Catholic employees may feel, it pales beside the trauma of deeply-wounded victims of heinous childhood sexual violence.
Here’s what Naumann should be doing now:
http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_new_head_of_kc_diocese_should_act_on_2_priests
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 22,000 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])
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I agree that the suffering felt by adult catholic employees really does pale in comparison to the pain felt by those who were raped when they were children. The roman catholic system (RCS) doesn’t learn and the reason the RCS doesn’t learn is because it is so big headed.