Survivor Speaks Out in Boston as New Abusers are Revealed

We applaud this brave survivor who had the courage to come forward, name her abuser publicly, and demand action from the Archdiocese of Boston. And when a survivor speaks truth to power, we hope that others – both in the Archdiocese of Boston and within the community – are listening and learning.

We are grateful as well to Mitchell Garabedian for exposing more names of accused abusers within the archdiocese. Now that these names are public, Cardinal Sean O’Malley must immediately add them to his list of publicly accused priests and travel to each community in which these men served in order to encourage survivors who may be suffering in silence to come forward, make a report to law enforcement, and find independent sources of help and healing.

At the same time, we cannot help but wonder how there can still be “credibly” accused clerics that the Archdiocese of Boston has not yet named before. We cannot fathom why every name the diocese has been made aware of has not been made public, especially with the history of scandals and secrecy in Boston, and the national outpouring of anger and frustration at similar secrecy in places like Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois.

Such secrecy cannot co-exist with the relentlessly repeated promises of “transparency.”

CONTACT: Zach Hiner, Executive Director ([email protected], 517-974-9009)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)