News Story of the Day
Several priests in prison for child sex abuse still being paid by Louisville Catholic church
By Gil Corse, September 27, 2017, WDRB.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- They stand convicted of committing terrible sins, but pedophile priests are still being paid by the Catholic church in Louisville.
"I think it's absurd," Michael Norris said. "I just don't understand it."
Norris is one of Fr. Joseph Hemmerle's victims, molested at age 11 at camp Tall Trees in Meade County in the 1970's.
"This man is who I was thought is an extension of God," Norris said. "That's what the Catholic church taught me. And here's God doing this to me. It really messes with your spirituality."
Fifteen women accuse ex-priest of sexually abusing them at Queens Catholic school over two decades
BY ESHA RAYGRAHAM RAYMAN, September 27, 2017, New York Daily News
Fifteen women are claiming Tuesday they were sexually abused by a priest at a Catholic school in Queens over a span of two decades.
The women say they were abused by the Rev. Adam Prochaski at the Holy Cross school in Maspeth between 1973 and 1994, according to their lawyer Mitchell Garabedian and Robert Hoatson of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery group, which helps victims of sexual abuse.
Garabedian was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the movie "Spotlight" about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning series on clergy sexual abuse.
Barbara Blaine, Who Championed Victims of Priests’ Abuse, Dies at 61
Barbara Blaine, who was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest as a teenager and went on to found the nation’s most potent advocacy group for abuse survivors, died on Sunday in St. George, Utah. She was 61.
The cause was a sudden tear in a blood vessel in her heart, which she sustained on Sept. 18 after going hiking on a vacation, her husband, Howard Rubin, said. She lived in Chicago.
Ms. Blaine, a lawyer with a degree in theology, served for nearly 30 years as president of the group she founded, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. She stepped down this year and had recently started a new international organization to hold the Vatican and church officials overseas accountable for covering up abuse cases.
SNAP founder Barbara Blaine, who advocated for survivors of clergy sex abuse, dies
ABC7Chicago, September 24, 2017
Blaine, 61, who resigned as SNAP president in February, was surrounded by family and friends when she died, the statement said.
Blaine stepped down after three decades of campaigning to force the Catholic Church to recognize the extent of the scandal and compensate thousands of people affected.
Out of ‘Spotlight,’ the movie, comes the Spotlight Fellowship
By Globe Staff, September 24, 2017, The Boston Globe
Today’s report started with the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight.”
The film told the story of the Globe’s groundbreaking investigation of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. In 2016, the movie’s producers won the Oscar for Best Picture.
But the team at one of the companies behind the film — Participant Media, founded by Jeff Skoll and dedicated to entertainment that inspires social change — wanted to do more to champion the work of investigative journalists. So they created the Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship.
University report lifts the lid on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church
By Kieran Tapsell, Sep 23, 2017, National Catholic Reporter
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — The most comprehensive report ever published on the systemic reasons behind child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has recently been released.
The August 2017 report, Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports, examined 26 commissions of inquiry, scientific research and literature since 1985 to find common features in the culture, history and structures of the church and the psychological, social and theological factors that contributed to the tragedy.
More than a dozen abusive clergy served local parishes
By Cody Hooks, [email protected], September 22, 2017, The Taos News
Armando Martinez grew up in Questa, the village of alfalfa fields and a couple of thousand people at the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Martinez didn't look for work at the nearby molybdenum mine, like a lot of young men from the village. Instead, he went into a Catholic seminary, became a priest and headed parishes from Belen to Tucumcari, Springer to El Rito.
In May 1997, Martinez was found naked and dead, his body left in a ditch near Bernalillo. His murderer turned himself in days later.
Vasek asks court Wednesday in TRF to deny diocese’s attempts to throw out his claims
By Times Report, Crookston Times
Also, three more priests’ names added to list, and two served at the Diocese of Crookston in the 1940s and 1950s.
San Leandro teen: Catholic school, church diocese failed to prevent sex abuse by counselor
By Matthias Gafni, The Mercury News
SONOMA — A San Leandro teen sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa and an embattled school for traumatized boys Tuesday, claiming employees failed to prevent his sexual abuse by a counselor who took advantage of his troubled past.
Exclusive: Accused Vatican diplomat wrote 2003 dissertation on sex abuse church laws
By Joelle Casteix, September 18, 2017, The Worthy Adversary
A Vatican priest and diplomat under suspicion for violating US child pornography lawswrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church laws addressing how the Holy See deals with clerics accused of molesting children.
Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, recalled by the Vatican last week, wrote The criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy in the canonical laws of 1917 and 1983: historical-juridical study to complete his studies in Canon Law. I took screenshots, in case the link “disappears.”
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director