SNAP weighs in on USCCB meeting in Baltimore

For Immediate Release November 13, 2023

When all US Catholic bishops meet in Baltimore, we urge them to discuss the church's ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis. Ignoring this still-widespread and deeply hurtful criminal scandal leads to further complacency which enables more predators to assault more kids.
While the Catholic hierarchy's internal panels, procedures, policies and protocols on abuse are inherently flawed and rarely effective, not talking about this crisis is the wrong approach.


Specifically, at a bare minimum, we urge the bishops to at least discuss the possibility of:
---establishing a whistleblowers fund to help church employees who experience retaliation after reporting known or suspected child sex crimes to church officials, and
---fighting for, not against, reforms of secular abuse laws to give victims of childhood sexual violence more time to expose those who commit or conceal child sex crimes in court.


We also urge them to vote AGAINST elevating San Francisco's archbishop to a committee chairmanship.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone remains one of only about a dozen prelates who stubbornly, recklessly and callously refuse to disclose and post on their website the names of credibly accused child molesting clerics. On that basis alone, he should be denied any more positions of respect or responsibility in the church.
(He's one of two candidates to become head of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of the Diocese of Toledo is running against him.)
https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/us-bishops-meet-nov-13-16-baltimore-assembly-be-live-streamed

 

CONTACT: David Lorenz, SNAP Maryland ([email protected], 301-906-9161), Teresa Lancaster, SNAP Member ([email protected], 410- 703- 9122),  Mike McDonnell, SNAP Interim Executive Director ([email protected], 267-261-0578

 

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 35 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)


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