News Story of the Day

Survivors urge Sacramento diocese to expand accused priest list, including adult sex abuse

UPDATED DECEMBER 08, 2021 6:18 PM
www.sacbee.com 

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is calling for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento to expand its list of credibly abused clergy by about two dozen, providing a list consisting largely of priests who served an assignment at some point in the Sacramento area and then had accusations acknowledged by other dioceses. The organization is also urging the diocese to begin listing those credibly accused of sexually abusing adults older than 25. SNAP Sacramento alleges there are at least 25 priests who should be added on these grounds to the local list, currently composed of 45 priests and two deacons. The diocese’s list and SNAP’s proposed list each span several decades.

 


Abuse survivor Phil Saviano said something profound by having a Catholic funeral

Almost 20 years ago, clergy abuse survivor Phil Saviano told the first Voice of the Faithful conference: "I am not faithful." He said the repeated assaults he suffered from Fr. David Holley had led to losing his faith before he even went through puberty.


Eliminate the statute that helps child abusers | Editorial

Since Gov. Murphy signed a 2019 law that suspended the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits for two years, more than 1,200 cases were filed -- two-thirds of them against clergy or a religious institution.

A window to justice opened, and the people who had spent years or decades harboring an unfathomable pain stepped through it.

But the deadline for those victims to file suit ended Tuesday, and examination of the available data makes this much clear: The suspension of the statute needs to be extended, and our lawmakers should consider waiving it entirely.

That’s why one examination of these lawsuits filed during this two-year window is revealing. The Record reports that 80% are based on allegations that took place between 1960 and 1990. Only 40 are related to incidents that occurred after 1990.

 


SNAP mourns the loss of our dear friend Phil Saviano

  


More than 850 sexual abuse lawsuits have been filed as deadline approaches for past claims

More than 40 years after a 15-year-old boy was reportedly sexually abused by the Rev. John Capparelli, the alleged victim filed a lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court against the Archdiocese of Newark and the church where the disgraced, defrocked priest — who was murdered in 2019 — once served.

The plaintiff in the case, not identified by name, spoke of being raised in a devout Catholic family and participating in youth and church activities at Holy Trinity Church in Westfield, before ultimately becoming a victim to what was described only as “unpermitted sexual contact.”

It is just one of hundreds of civil lawsuits that have been filed in New Jersey since the state opened a two-year window that greatly extended the amount of time victims of sexual abuse had to sue.

And now, that window is closing. At the end of the month, a two-year extension allowing such lawsuits on decades-old allegations comes to an end.

Advocates, however, say the COVID pandemic has made it difficult for victims to meet with attorneys and build their cases and have called for more time to allow others to seek justice.

“The pandemic closed our courts for some time and it delayed in many ways the statewide investigation of the five Catholic Dioceses in New Jersey,” said Mark Crawford, a clergy abuse survivor and state leader of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The New Jersey law, passed in 2019 and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, waived the statute of limitations to sue under a 24-month time period ending on Nov. 30, 2021. The law also allowed adults who were assaulted as children to file civil suits until they turn 55, or seven years after they discover that they were abused. It targeted not only individuals who allegedly committed sexual assault, but the churches, athletic organizations, schools and community organizations for whom they had worked.


Former RI Catholic priest indicted on child-molestation charges

Tom Mooney
The Providence Journal November 9, 2021

PROVIDENCE — A grand jury has returned an 11-count indictment against former priest James Silva alleging he sexually assaulted a boy younger than 14 between 1989 and 1990 while an administrator in the Office of Ministerial Formation within the Diocese of Providence. 

Silva, now 81, faces two counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second-degree child molestation. 


SNAP and leading advocacy organizations, such as Darkness 2 Light, RAINN, Together for Girls, and the Army of Survivors, will recognize November 18th as the international #EndChildSexAbuseDay.

 

 

 

This November we have a great chance to bring the needs, wants, and asks of survivors to the world stage in a big way! SNAP and leading advocacy organizations, such as Darkness 2 Light, RAINN, Together for Girls, and the Army of Survivors, will recognize November 18th as the international #EndChildSexAbuseDay.

More than 50 countries will be joining us as we make noise on social media and in the streets to draw attention to the needs of survivors, the ways we can prevent abuse, and the action that we are demanding our leaders and elected officials take. We need your voice to join the chorus!

On November 18 we, as part of the steering group for the Keep Kids Safe coalition, will release our Federal Blueprint for action (click here to read the blueprint in full). A key part of this blueprint, and something that SNAPpers have demanded for years, is the importance of a federal investigation into institutions that perpetuate abuse and cover-up, like the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention, and others.


Top Catholic predator cleric who lives in St. Louis is in court today

By David Clohessy 

10/28/2021

An ex-priest in the St. Louis area, who is the most highly ranked and prominent US Catholic official to ever face criminal charges of child sexual abuse is back in a courtroom today.

https://whdh.com/news/court-hearing-scheduled-for-ex-cardinal-mccarrick-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-teen-boy-in-mass-nearly-50-years-ago/

https://www.snapnetwork.org/former_cardinal_theodore_mccarrick_s_pre_trial_hearing_is_to_be_held_thursday_october_28

Very few St. Louisans know that he and dozens of other predators from all across the US are living here. Sure, he’s old. Sure, the church center that houses him is ‘out in the boondocks.’ But that doesn’t mean he’s ‘cured’ and is now safe, nor that we should care less about the safety of rural kids. And virtually none of those predators in Dittmer - who’ve been deemed too dangerous, by their own church supervisors, to live back in their home dioceses - are known to St. Louis parents, police, prosecutors, or parishioners.

The cleric in court today is Theodore McCarrick, the only US Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be charged with child sex crimes. We hope his prosecution happens quickly. We hope that his victims feel some measure of relief and validation that he’s finally facing justice. And we hope that Catholic officials in St. Louis finally begin honoring their pledges to be ’open’ about abuse and disclose the names of the hundreds of out-of-state child molesting clerics who’ve been secretly welcomed into our archdiocese for decades.

 

https://www.snapnetwork.org/fact_sheet_on_st_louis_area_accused_priests_feb19

 

https://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2005_press_releases/012505_importing_predators.htm


What if you experience harm instead of healing in the confessional?

SOUTH BEND (IN)
National Catholic Reporter [Kansas City MO]

October 26, 2021

By Flora x. Tang

 

“I just had the worst confession ever. I confessed a sexual sin, something I haven’t confessed in a long time, and the priest … asked me if I was a toy,” Zuri Davis wrote on Twitter Oct. 17 about her experience of going to confession in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Davis described how the priest, whose name she still does not know, hounded her to ask if she was raped (an inappropriate and invasive question in this setting), and proceeded to tell her to take ownership of her role in the situation.

Within hours, Catholics from different walks of life shared in Davis’ anger about this situation and encouraged her to report the priest for spiritual abuse and misconduct. Davis’ story of the invasive priest and the sheer logistical difficulty she experienced trying to report a nameless priest behind a screen for misconduct sparked countless other Catholics to share similar experiences of harm in the confessional booth in the next several days on social media.


Liberty University threatened to punish students who reported being raped with conduct violations: report

THE HILL -

BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL - 

Liberty University threatened to punish students who came forward with reports of being raped for violating the school’s code of conduct, according to a new report published Monday by ProPublica.

ProPublica spoke to more than 50 former students and staffers at Liberty University and reviewed records from more than a dozen cases, which accused the school of discouraging and dismissing students who came forward with allegations of rape, reporting that in some cases they said they were threatened with punishment for breaking the school’s moral code, known as the Liberty Way.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/578278-liberty-university-threatened-to-punish-students-who-reported


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