NY- New Albany bishop named

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 10

 

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

 

A high ranking cleric from a diocese that's one of the most secretive with predator priests has been promoted to head the Albany Catholic diocese. Pope Francis has made another poor choice. While the pontiff has made steps forward on Vatican finances and governance, he has still done virtually nothing substantial to help expose predators, deter enablers, heal victims and prevent future clergy sex crimes and cover ups. 

For a decade, Scharfenberger has been heavily involved in pedophile priest cases, in two roles (as “promoter of justice” and as a review board member). Yet we've seen not a single hopeful move in the Brooklyn diocese regarding this scandal. That diocese, like many, does only the absolute bare minimum in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, and only then because it's required to do so by the US church's vague, weak and rarely enforced abuse policy.

 

Thirty bishops have posted pedophile priests' names on their websites. This is, we believe, a bare minimum public safety step. Brooklyn Catholic officials refuse to do so, even though there are at least 53 Brooklyn priests who have been publicly accused of molesting kids. Equally troubling, Brooklyn Catholic officials put a lawyer in charge of responding to abuse reports, a maneuver which we consider a shrewd and unethical way to try to handle these cases quietly and prevent victims from seeking justice in court.

 

We have been critical of Bishop Howard Hubbard's recklessness and callousness in chlid sex cases. So we had hoped that his replacement would be someone whose track record in this crisis had been better. But today we are disappointed.

 

We hope that Bishop Scharfenberger will quickly

post predators' names on his diocesan website and in parish bulletins,

begin personally visiting each parish where a pedophile priest worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police, and

start supporting, not fighting, efforts to reform New York's archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations on child sex crimes.

 

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/07_08/2007_07_26_Eagle_LawyerPriest.htm

 

(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 15,000 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 15 comments

  • jack cesare
    commented 2014-10-05 08:55:55 -0500
    one of the rapist father gary mecue early records released & dioceses forgot to take out victims name———-surprise more friends were raped that we didn’t
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-15 07:16:45 -0600
    THE JANITOR RAPED MANY OTHERS WHO HAVE COME FORWARD-
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-15 07:15:53 -0600
    I JACK CESARE WAS RAPED BY GENE HUBBERT THE JANITOR-THE DIOCESES REVIEW BOARD WITH BISHOP HUBBARD ON IT ,CAMR TO THE CONCLUSION I WAS RAPED BUT REFUSES TO ANSWER HOW THEY CAME TO THAT CONCLUSIONTHE JANITOR DIED IN 1997 OF PROSTATE CANCER—-THE ANSWER WE KNOW BUT MORE ANSWERS ON IN THE RECORDS THE DIOCESES WAS FORCED TO RELEASE BUT BISHOP HUBBARD WENT BACK TO COURT TO FIGHT FOR HIS LIFE TO NOT HAVE THE RECORDS RELEASEDFOR NOW THEY DONT HAVE TO——WE NEED THE STATUE OF LIMITATION ON SEX ABUSE TO BE ELIMINATED AND A 1 YEAR WINDOWTHE ONLY ONE THAT DOESNT WANT A WINDOW IS THE CHURCH,BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF RAPES THEY CONTINUE TO KEEP COVERED UP———RELEASE THE RECORDS US RAPED VICTIMS KNOW WHATS IN IT BECAUSE WE WERE RAPED BY DIFFERENT RAPIST IN ALBANY—-SENATOR SKELLOS AND KLEIN PUT PRESSURE ON THE SPONSOR OF THE BILL LAST YEAR NOT TO EVEN BRING IT UP FOR A VOTE————CRIMINALS
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-15 06:59:50 -0600
    ALL ARE LAWYERS ARE READY TO GO—THE DIOCESE RELEASED RECORDS AND FORGOT TO TAKE SOME VICTIMS NAME OUT—-JAMES GALLAGER-AND JAMES BENEDETTI—-THEY WERE SUPPOSE TO BE CONFIDENTIAL,JUST LIKE THE PEDIPHILE PRIEST
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-15 06:56:21 -0600
    THE NEW BISHOP IN ALBANY HAS TO ADDRESS THE RAPES IN ALBANY ON DAY 1—IF HE THINKS HE IS GOING TO DO THE SAME—-HE IS IN FOR A AWAKENING
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-15 06:54:41 -0600
    BECAUSE I AM GAY AND I KNOW A GAY MAN WHEN I SEE ONE AND BELIEVE ME WE HAVE SEEN MANY ALL AROUND US THAT RAPED US IN SAINT TERESA OF AVILA UNDER CRIMINAL AND HOMO SEXUAL BISHOP HUBBARD—-GOOGLE AGONY IN ALBANY AND START ON PAGE 6 TO SEE WHAY BISHOP HUBBARD GOT AWAY WITHTHEN MAKE ANOTHER COMMENT—A FACT OVER 50% OF PRIEST ARE GAY ITS MORE LIKE 70 OR 80 %—
  • Ron Martel
    commented 2014-02-14 16:12:25 -0600
    What is your point at stating he looks gay?
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-14 14:35:57 -0600
    many of these priest premediated taking a job as a priest knowing they were pediphiles and when they raped 12 year old children did they have any sexual transmitted anything that they gave to children—parents would never know to check this in a very young children —-these perverts needs to be in prison right next to bishop hubbards friend father mecure
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-14 14:30:17 -0600
    the new bishop looks as gay as they come —this coming from a gay man —100% gay
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-14 14:28:47 -0600
    we have been living with our rapes from saint Teresa of avila with 3 different rapist—gene Hubert the janitor was raping so many and taking his victims one of them steven Erickson who came forward to the dioceses and the district attorneys office,took his victims in his volkswagon and picked up other kids in colonie and brought them to paradox lakes and supplied them with booze and raped them-my question is how did 12 and 13 year old kids go away for a weekend with a janitor,why would any parent even let that happen,this is what we asked about in the investigation,no parent would do this -father mecure raped so many kids that they are coming forward while he is in prison,and father david Bentley raped kids in Albany and at parsons home for children in Albany ny-Bentleys # is 520-578-2200 and the new bishop of Albany is 718-361-1884 call him and let him know his # 1 priority is rapes of children in Albany which bishop hubbard has been covering up since 1977—bishop hubbard also paid 1 million dollars to get him out of sexual trouble—google agony in Albany start on page 6—-a police officer who die his wife signed a statement that her husband stated twice he caught hubbard in a car with a indian man dressed as a women and another incident on the thruway or turnpike—-35 years is long enough to cover this up when some victims have ended their life already and some of my classmates one dave topino almost lost his ,but he is alive and well and I got him to come forward of his rape by father mecure—the raped victims from the Albany catholic dioceses who have been raped—-jack cesare-steven Erickson-matt decker-Michael Flynn,michael shovoh—james gallager-james Benedetti-mr bromley and conneley brothers—enough is enoughwhat is it going to take a bullet,to end this tragedy in the albnay catholic dioceses and their lawyer Michael Costello who has help them get away with it for 35 years
  • Ron Martel
    commented 2014-02-14 07:53:19 -0600
    Wasn’t his job to get rid of them. Talk to Nicky Boy
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-14 07:50:51 -0600
    what we want is to get theses rapist loser priest that have been raping children off the streets-the only way to do that in new York is to rid the statue of limitation and or include a 1 yr window that the church doesn’t want because it would bring many forward (thousands)just like 14 other state that changed the statue
  • Jack Cesare
    commented 2014-02-14 07:46:39 -0600
    this seems to be a coverup again before he even steps in as new bishop—he has done nothing with the priest that abused in brooklynn
  • Ron Martel
    commented 2014-02-11 10:58:09 -0600
    unfortunately you have the information wrong, Scharfenberger is probably the best priest that I know. The concerns you have with the Brooklyn Diocese have none to do with him. We often have to wonder would SNAP be happy with any appointments.
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