Clergy sex victims blast RI bishop

He refuses to warn parents about 2 predators

One of his pedophile priests just found near kids

Admitted predator worked just feet from "play area"

And another proven pedophile priest was just sentenced

Church officials should reach out to others he has hurt, SNAP says

Group also wants Tobin to list child molesting clerics on his website

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast Rhode Island's bishop for refusing to list predator priests on his website. They will also urge him to aggressively reach out to anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by
--- an admitted Rhode Island predator priest who was just found working near kids in Massachusetts, and
--- another proven former Rhode Island pedophile priest who was sentenced just yesterday, worked at a Providence area church as recently as 2005 but who isn’t going to jail

The group will also
--- try to hand deliver a letter to Providence’s bishop about these matters, and
--- beg anyone with knowledge about the pedophiles to contact law enforcement, so he might still be prosecuted and jailed.

WHEN
Tuesday, Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Providence Catholic diocese headquarters, One Cathedral Square, in downtown Providence

WHO
Three-four clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
Two Catholic priests who worked in Rhode Island, both known child molesters, were in the news elsewhere yesterday.

Yesterday, a Boston TV station reported that a priest (Fr. Roland M. Lepire) worked until very recently just feet away from a children’s play area at a car dealership in the Boston suburb of Norwood.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/undercover/pedophile-priest-working-near-kids

Also yesterday, a Maryland judge sentenced a predator priest (Fr. A. J. Cote) to ten years of probation. http://www.gazette.net/stories/11232009/montnew162902_32558.shtml

Cote worked here from 2003-2005 and Lepire worked here from 1975 to 1996.

SNAP believes that Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin should aggressively reach out to anyone who has knowledge of either predator’s crimes, especially because they are known offenders who walk free. For the sake of public safety, Tobin should also post on his website the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. (More than 15 bishops, a small minority, have taken this simple, inexpensive, proven method of alerting parents about and protecting kids from dangerous predators. Tobin, however, has repeatedly refused to do so, even though his diocese has one of the highest rates of accused pedophile priests in the US.)

According to church records and media accounts, for at least 34 years, Catholic officials have known Lepire was a credibly accused child molester. For 13 years, they’ve known he is an admitted child molester. But other than suspending him from his job (which church insurers and defense lawyers no doubt insisted on), SNAP believes they’ve done virtually nothing to safeguard those around Lepire.

And Providence diocesan employees have done little to explain how and why they let Cote work in youth ministry here even though he was under criminal investigation for molesting a Maryland boy when he came to Rhode Island.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602414.html

Nor has Tobin adequately explained why, in January 2007, his lawyers admitted in court that some 125 Rhode Island priests have been accused of molesting kids, but only 29 of them have been publicly identified.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/09_10/2007_10_20_Paulson_NewRI.htm

SNAP believes there are thousands of admitted, proven and credibly accused pedophile priests like Lepire out there, getting little or no help or supervision or monitoring from or by the bishops who essentially helped them rape and sodomized kids by ignoring or hiding their crimes. Even today, by their continued silence and inaction, these bishops continue to help these pedophiles find and hurt and endanger children, SNAP feels.

Detailed assignment histories for both predator priests are available at BishopAccountability.org
http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Lepire_Roland_M.htm
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/09_10/2007_10_20_Paulson_NewRI.htm

CONTACT
Bill Nash 413 219 4312, David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP National Director 314-566-9790 cell, Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP National Outreach Director 314-503-0003 cell, Skip Shea of Uxbridge MA, 508 282 9847, Paul Kellan 781 526 5878