Vatican--Pope removes German cardinal as sex abuse crisis catches up, Victims respond

For immediate release, July 2, 2017

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, Volunteer Western Regional Leader for SNAP, the Survivors Network (949-322-7434[email protected])

The removal of Cardinal Mueller comes on the heels of Pope Francis' May statement that the Vatican has a backlog of 2000 child sex abuse cases. That is inexcusable.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/14/pope-francis-acknowledges-2000-case-backlog-in-sex-abuse-cases.html

Now that another powerful Vatican official, Cardinal Pell, has been charged with sex abuse in his native Australia, we think that Mueller’s ouster is too little, too late for the 2000 victims who have been languishing for answers. And if that means that there may be up to 2000 priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, have not seen due process, have not been removed from ministry, and who still have access to children, that could be a public safety crisis of epic proportions.

We hope that Cardinal Mueller’s replacement, Monsignor Luis Ladaria Ferrer, takes his job seriously and understands the wide-ranging ramifications of his office. We hope he acts swiftly to protect children, not the church.

We encourage his office to cooperate with civil authorities, not engage in secret cover-ups.

And finally: the only way to end the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is for the Vatican, through the Office for the Doctrine of the Faith, to make public all of their secret files about the sex abuse and cover-up. We suggest Monsignor Luis Ladaria Ferrer make that job number one.

(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 more than 20,000 members. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact – Melanie Jula Sakoda (925-708-6175[email protected]), Joelle Casteix (949-322-7434[email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003, [email protected])

SNAP Network is a GuideStar Gold Participant