PA: Survivors’ group applauds the release of a redacted version of the grand jury report

For immediate release Friday, July 27, 2018

Statement by Tim Lennon, Volunteer President of the Board of Directors of SNAP, the Survivors Network (415-312-5820, [email protected])

We are extremely grateful that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will make a redacted version of the grand jury report public next month. Hopefully, the judges will ultimately decide to allow the entire report to see the light of day.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/07/pa_supreme_court_sanctions_rel.html?utm_campaign=pennlive_sf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

In the meantime, survivors know without seeing a page of the report, quoting from the letter of the Attorney General Josh Shapiro to Pope Francis, that it will show “widespread sexual abuse of children and a systematic coverup by leaders of the Catholic Church.”

http://www.thecourierexpress.com/pennsylvania-ag-sends-letter-to-pope-on-attempts-to-silence/article_cfc12ba0-4df1-5431-acb4-9a11d1ebd199.html

Those of us who have worked with SNAP for years know that it is not easy to go up against the Catholic Church, with its great power and wealth. We are thankful to the attorney general for working so hard to have the bulk of the grand jury report released. Once again, the rule of law has prevailed, at least for the most part, over opposition from within the Church.

We are also delighted that many survivors who shared their truths with the grand jurors, and who feared that this difficult and painful experience was going to be for nothing, will finally see their horrific experiences made public. We hope that exposing the lengths to which these six dioceses went to protect predatory priests, as well as the great suffering that the victims endured as a result, will go a long way toward preventing this from ever happening again in Pennsylvania.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, is the world's oldest and largest support group for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has a network of more than 25,000 survivors and supporters. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org

Contact  -  Tim Lennon (415-312-5820, [email protected]); Judy Jones (636-433-2511, [email protected]), Becky Ianni (703-801-6044,[email protected])

 

SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant