OH- Catholic teachers face tough new restrictions, SNAP responds

For immediate release: Thursday, March 20, 2014

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

Cincinnati archdiocesan officials are ramping up the restriction on what Catholic teachers may say and do.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2014/03/06/catholic-teacher-contract-specifies-banned-practices/6148399/

Top Catholic officials can keep tightening the screws on their flocks about legal speech and behavior. But their tough discipline is likely to ring hollow and be ineffective because they refuse to take similar action against their colleagues who ignore or conceal clergy sex crimes.

It's ironic that Catholic teachers who say and do things that are legal face punishments while Catholic officials who say hurtful things about abuse victims and do illegal things about predator priests virtually never face punishments.

(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 2 comments

  • Jonathan Hinck
    commented 2014-03-21 09:43:56 -0500
    Are Catholic officials restricting what employees can say outside of the work environment? If so, then the Church proves that it embraces the First Amendment when it comes to “religious liberty” issues, but disregards it when it comes to freedom of speech and assembly for individuals they disagree with. Wonder what would happen if an employee spoke out regarding an abusive priest?
  • @ tweeted this page. 2014-03-20 10:23:57 -0500

SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant