Victim & parents speak publicly for 1st time

• Victim & parents speak publicly for 1^st time
• They blast Catholic officials re alleged molester
• Twice accused predator priest is sent to Cincinnati
• But family wants him to be put in treatment center
• And they ask “Why was he put back in parishes in 2010?”
• Criminal charges against the clergyman in WV were dropped 
• But that was because of legal technicalities, parents maintain
• Self help group begs archbishop: "Reach out to other victims"

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will prod Cincinnati Catholic officials to:

-- Widely publicize the latest child sex abuse allegations against a Cincy area priest,

-- Put him into a secure treatment center, so that kids will be safer,

-- Personally visit each place where he worked and reach out to any other victims, and

-- Beg anyone who has been abused, or seen or suspected abuse, to report the abuse to law enforcement.

They also want Cincinnati’s Catholic archbishop to denounce or discipline a Cincy-based Catholic religious order for carelessly putting the accused predator back into parishes despite an earlier child sex allegation against him.


WHEN
Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.

WHERE
On the public sidewalk outside St. Peter in Chains Cathedral, 325 West 8th Street (corner of Plum St.) in Cincinnati

WHO
Two-to-three men and women who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), including the Cincinnati victim's family who will speak publicly for first time

WHY
Last week, for the second time in three years, Fr. Robert F. Poandl was suspended from parish ministry because of alleged child sex crimes. http://www.glenmary.org/site/epage/130601_919.htm

He’s being brought back from Georgia to the Cincinnati area where he worked once - by his direct supervisor, Father Chet Artysiewicz, who heads the Fairfield, OH-based Glenmary Home Missioners. In 2010, Poandl was accused of molesting a Cincinnati boy in West Virginia in 1991. A criminal case involving those allegations was dropped after a judge questioned some of the evidence. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/07_08/2010_08_30_Clevenger_RoaneJudge.htm

SNAP wants Artysiewicz to put Poandl in a secure treatment center away from kids and aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his alleged crimes.

In March, 2010, the group sent a letter to Archbishop Daniel Schnurr (and several other bishops) urging them to use the archdiocesan website, newspaper, and parish bulletins to urge other victims and witnesses to contact law enforcement. Had Schnurr and Glenmary officials done this, SNAP suspects, other Poandl victims might have stepped forward sooner and the alleged child molesting cleric would likely have been kept away from children sooner (Only the Tyler TX bishop honored SNAP’s request).

A similar press event is being held in Atlanta, GA. on Tuesday, Feb 21^st at 11:30 a.m., because Poandl’s most recent assignments were in the Georgia towns of Claxton, Pembroke, and Sandhill) within the Atlanta archdiocese.

Besides Cincinnati, Poandl worked in Kentucky (Franklin), Louisiana (New Orleans), Pennsylvania (Mifflintown and Doylesburg), Mississippi (Aberdeen), Oklahoma (Hugo), Texas (Pittsburgh and Mount Vernon), and most recently in Georgia (Claxton, Pembroke, Sandhill, Blairsville, and Dahlonega). He is originally from Metuchen, N.J. and studied in Ohio, Indiana and Mexico.

Contact:
Dan Frondorf, SNAP Leader Cincinnati, 513-706-7403, [email protected]
Judy Block Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, [email protected]
Barb Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503-0003, [email protected]