MO- Finn wants out of his contract with abuse victims

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Statement by Mike Hunter of Kansas City, KC Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (913 634 6490, [email protected])

Embattled Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn wants out of a contract he signed six years ago with more than 40 local clergy sex abuse victims. Shame on him. 

In a KC courtroom today, one of Finn's lawyers (David Frye) asked “But are we going to be in endless litigation on these non-monetary commitments forever?”

Frye and Finn should know that when they signed a contract with no expiration date, and then broke it, they would be held responsible. That's what contracts are for: to ensure that people act the way they should.

There's a simple way for Finn to prevent “endless litigation.” He should honor his word. He should do what he promised to do in the contract: call police quickly when abuse is suspected and train all his employees on abuse prevention. It's as simple as that.

Judge Round is right: nullifying the agreement, he said, “sends a bad message.” So does violating the agreement. And obeying the agreement protects children. 

Ironically, like Finn, abuse victims don't want more litigation either. But we're willing to do whatever it takes to force this self-serving Catholic hierarchy to take simple, effective steps to stop child sex crimes and cover ups. 

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 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])

 


Showing 3 comments

  • Gary Siebers
    commented 2014-07-24 22:57:35 -0500
    the catholic clergy are chicken shit
  • Mike Skiendzielewski
    commented 2014-07-24 11:27:53 -0500
    In a KC courtroom today, one of Finn’s lawyers (David Frye) asked “But are we going to be in endless litigation on these non-monetary commitments forever?”
    And, Mr Frye (small) receives how much per hour for these gems of legal insight?
  • @ tweeted this page. 2014-07-24 10:13:50 -0500

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