The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
SNAP
Press Release
Giving Voice to Victims
Friday, November 7, 2008
Send the Bishops a Message news conferences in Chicago and L.A., Monday, Nov. 10th
Notice of Chicago Sidewalk News Conference on November 10thNew Catholic group urges parishioners “Stop Donating”
It decries continuing protection of pedophile priests by bishops
Lay people must use “power of the purse” to “force real reform”
Ongoing secrecy in Church finances is basically “taxation without representation”
Nov. 16th is first international “Withholding Sunday”
WHAT
Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, Catholics will prod fellow parishioners to withhold financial donations on November 16th which will be the first nationwide, indeed worldwide Withholding Sunday, to send the bishops a message that irresponsibility and secrecy will no longer be tolerated
WHEN
Monday, Nov 10, 11:00 a.m.
WHERE
Outside Chicago archdiocesan headquarters, 155 East Superior, in downtown Chicago
WHO
Three-four members of a new organization called “Send the Bishops a Message” (http://www.sendthebishopsamessage.com) and supporters from SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) ; the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful (VOTF.org); We Are Catholics (wearecatholics.com); and the Coalition of Concerned Catholics.
WHY
Reasons we are taking this action:
---The ongoing failure of Catholic Church officials to protect our children from dangerous clerical predators
---The bishops’ failure to provide acceptable levels of stewardship for our hard-earned donations
---The refusal of Church officials to accept responsibility for their grave moral failures in the clergy sex abuse crisis. They repeatedly “apologize,” but neither admit to covering up sex crimes against children nor accept their part in the grave scandal brought down upon Catholics everywhere.
---After almost 6 years since the Dallas Charter of 2002, we are still witnessing high-level Church officials protecting both clerical sexual predators and those who shield these predators.
---Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George, the current head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), refused to follow his own sex abuse review board’s recommendation that he, George, suspend a priest, Fr, Dan Mc Cormack, who had been arrested for sexual abuse of a minor. Three months after Cardinal George’s refusal to act against Fr. McCormack, this priest molested at least three more boys in Chicago’s inner city. One of the children, prosecutors say, had been assaulted “on an almost daily” basis.
---Catholics have no elections, recall procedures, or impeachment processes that allow them to replace those who have cost parishioners so much. Withholding donations is the best way for a disenfranchised laity to send, with one voice, a message to church officials in the only language they understand–MONEY!
CONTACT – Frank Douglas, national director of Send the Bishops a Message, 520 404 2489 (cell) or 520 579 9575 (home); Rick Springer 773 485 2447; Matt McCormick 847 361 3633; Therese Albrecht 708 263 3050
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org