SNAP Press Statement (Main Forum)

by SunnyDaze , Australia, Saturday, March 13, 2010, 11:42 (1167 days ago) @ desi

SNAP Press Statement
For immediate release: Friday, March 12, 2010
http://reform-network.net/?p=2908

Pope’s former diocese admits error over priest; sex abuse victims respond
Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president and founder of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747)

It boggles the mind to hear a German Catholic official claim that a credibly accused pedophile priest was re-assigned to parish work without the knowledge of his boss, then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger.

Off hand, we can’t think of a single case anywhere on the planet where a credibly accused predator priest was put back around kids and no one asked or told the top diocesan official – the bishop.

And no church official has ever claimed that a vicar general, as the AP reports, “was in sole charge of staffing decisions.”

Remember three facts:
– For decades, priests have been in very short supply. Bishops keep very close tabs on their priests.
– In the 1980s, relatively few pedophile priests were ousted and sent for treatment. It’s extremely unlikely that then-Archbishop Ratzinger would have had dozens of such men to keep track of.
– The Catholic hierarchy is a tightly-structured, closely-knit institution, not a loosey-goosey hippie commune.

Given these facts, we find it extraordinarily hard to believe that Ratzinger didn’t re-assign the predator, or know about the re-assignment.

When vicar generals and auxiliary bishops become bishops, sometimes they are questioned about abuse cases in their home dioceses. Virtually without exception, they defend themselves by saying, “I was just an underling. The bishop handled such cases.” Now, suddenly, German church officials want us to believe that the Munich diocese operates completely differently.

Sadly, the claim that Archbishop Ratzinger “delegated” abuse to his diocesan underlings is sadly reminiscent of Cardinal Law’s identical, and later disproven claim.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around since 1988 and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Peter Isely (414-429-7259), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011325034_apeuchurchabuse.html