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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Missouri SNAP hit by Catholic hierarchy--in The NY Times

David Clohessy keeps records from his advocacy group, known as SNAP, in his St. Louis home.
Today: Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said broad subpoenas in two Missouri sex-abuse cases were a means of intimidation, an accusation the church disputed. So not only is the Catholic hierarchy capable of physical and sexual abuse of students--the children they should be taking care of and helping--but now they're also trying to "strong arm" the people who are trying to get the abuse to stop. Naturally, there is mention in the article of our situation here, dealing with enabler Bishop Finn and his case in court. It's just disgusting. Truly vile. These people have become the very thing they are supposed to warn the rest of us to not be. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/catholic-church-pressures-victims-network-with-subpoenas.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120313; http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/update%3A-ccr-client-under-attack-catholic-church-lawyers

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

On our website - SNAPnetwork.org - are simple suggestions for helping victims beat back this assault against them by top Catholic officials. Please check it out. Thanks.

Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511
"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests" and all clergy.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. 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 and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Mo Rage said...

Thank you for the link! We need to fight this, of course. (As though I need to tell you).

Unknown said...

What a despicable institution. How can people not see that this is not God's church?

Mo Rage said...

Great question

Anonymous said...

*Catholic church implicated in castration of at least one abuse victim.
*Other minors were castrated without their parents consent. *Government officials knew this was occurring.

*Former prime minister implicated in intervening for criminally charged abusive priests

*Recent church “investigation” implicated in covering up these issues.

"The paper says the one confirmed case concerned a boy - Henk Heithuis - who reported being sexually abused by priests to the police in 1956. After giving evidence, he was placed in a Catholic-run psychiatric institution where he was then castrated because of his 'homosexual behaviour'.

The paper says the Deetman committee was informed about the castrations in writing but did not include mention of them in its report because ‘there were few leads for further research’.

The Deetman committee was set up by the church itself in 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke. It reported in December having identified some 800 priests and monks who abused children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the report said.

The NRC also said on Saturday the final Deetman report did not mention that a leading politician with the Catholic people’s party KVP had tried to have prison sentences dropped against several priests accused of abusing children in 1958.

Vic Marijnen, who went on to become prime minister in 1963, was chairman of the children’s home where Henk Heithuis and dozens of other children were abused until 1959.

MPs are now calling for a full parliamentary investigation into the abuse scandal because of concerns about the neutrality of the Deetman inquiry. MPs are due to question Deetman at a hearing next week.”

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/03/catholic_church_abuse_at_least.php

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/03/catholic_church_abuse_inspecto.php