News Story of the Day

Church child abuse victims' group SNAP takes on Poland

By Polskie Radio

August 13, 2014

The largest international organisation devoted to aiding victims of Church child abuse and exposing paedophile priests is setting up branches in Poland.

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), which was founded in the US in 1989, currently has representatives in 56 countries.

“We want to appoint a local [SNAP] leader in every diocese or region,” said Maria Mucha, who is setting up the organisation's Polish network, in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.


Priest abuse victims demand Jarrell, Harson release names

By Claire Taylor

August 13, 2014

A national group of priest sex abuse victims is calling on Bishop Michael Jarrell and District Attorney Mike Harson to release the names of 15 credibly accused priests.


New documents show falsehoods in Nienstedt testimony

By Madeleine Baran 

August 11, 2014

Documents made public Monday in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis show that Archbishop John Nienstedt made false statements under oath in April about his knowledge of a priest accused of child sexual abuse.

 


Former deacon, teacher in Mahoning County loses teaching license

BY The Vindicator Staff Report

August 8, 2014

A former deacon and teacher at two schools in Mahoning County has lost his teaching license.

Ernest Formichelli taught at Cardinal Mooney High School from 1976-2013 and St. Christine School from 1971-76, according to diocese records. He no longer is employed by the Diocese of Youngstown and no longer is a deacon.


Attorney releases names of 8 'credibly accused' priests

By Forum News Service

August 5, 2014

Plaintiffs' attorney Jeffrey Anderson released the names of eight priests from the Diocese of New Ulm who had been "credibly accused" of sexually abusing minors.


Listen to Barbara Blaine on WBEZ's Morning Shift!

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, of SNAP, met in Chicago this weekend for their annual conference. The organization functions as a support group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy members, and works to connect people with the resources to move on from that experience. Now, 25 years after their inception, SNAP’s founder Barbara Blaine explains what the new pope’s formation of commission for the protection of minors means for the group, and how they can work with the Church in order to heal.


Alleged abusive priest serving in Lafayette

By Claire Taylor

July 30, 2014

Here in the heart of Cajun country, where the first priest sex abuse scandal rocked the Roman Catholic Church faithful in the 1980s, allegations have surfaced that a priest who sexually abused a boy in the 1970s continues to minister in Lafayette.


SNAP’s clergy abuse victims mark 25 years and eye new targets

By David Gibson

July 29, 2014

(RNS) When victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests first organized into a small band of volunteer activists in the late 1980s, reports of clergy molesting children were still new and relatively few. Most were minimized as anomalies or dismissed altogether — much the way the victims were.


Fulton’s First Presbyterian named in lawsuit

July 24, 2014

A local church has been named one of the defendants in a lawsuit that also includes Jack Wayne Rogers, accusing Rogers of sexually assaulting the plaintiff when he was a child in 2000.


Wake-up call for Catholic hierarchs

By Mark Silk

July 21, 2014

Jennifer Haselberger’s affidavit ought to be sounding alarms throughout the length and breadth of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. What the former chancellor of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnesota has done is to call into question the efficacy of the procedures the American church has put into place to assure the faithful and society at large that it is successfully dealing with the sexual abuse of minors by priests. 


SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant