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Press Contacts: David Clohessy (SNAP) – (314) 566-9790
Suzanne Morse (VOTF) – (617) 680-2131
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and
Voice of the Faithful
Call for Bishops to Meet Openly
Organizations Believe that Backsliding Must Stop
Newton, MA and St Louis, MO – May 31, 2004 – The Survivors
Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful (VOTF)
are calling on the U.S. Catholic Bishops to open their national meeting
in June to public scrutiny and participation. The groups are also asking
the Bishops to recommit to the Charter for the Protection of Children
and Young People that they passed in Dallas in 2002. That commitment
should include a pledge to maintain both the independent National Review
Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection.
The nation’s largest support group for clergy sex abuse victims
and one of the leading Catholic lay organizations are fearful the nation’s
Bishops will discuss the Catholic Church’s sex abuse policy behind
closed doors when they gather in two weeks from today in Denver. Both
organizations are concerned that the Bishops will not follow through
with their promise of 2002 to conduct an annual audit of child safety
protection programs, and will not strengthen those audits through the
recommendations made to improve the audits in January.
“History has taught us that institutions do not change overnight,” said
Steve Krueger, executive director of Voice of the Faithful. “The
Bishops need to focus on rebuilding the foundation of public trust that
has crumbled – honoring their commitment of 2002 is necessary for
this. The idea of ‘taking a break’, as several Bishops have
suggested, is unacceptable and places children in harm’s way once
again.”
“Many Bishops keep trying to assure us there’s no ‘backtracking’ or
retreat from their earlier promises,” said Barbara Blaine of Chicago,
SNAP’s founder and president. “If that’s so, they should
welcome public input and participation in their deliberations on the
most crucial issue facing the American church today.”
Initially, the Bishops’ meeting was publicly described as a closed “retreat.” But
under pressure from survivors groups and lay Catholics, Bishops have
agreed to privately discuss future “audits” of child safety
protection programs. The two groups’ appeal is prompted in part
by recent news reports that Bishops have delayed decision on and may
cancel the next round of planned audits which would monitor how church
leaders are handing sex abuse in their dioceses. Also, SNAP and Voice
of the Faithful were motivated by the claims of the chair of the National
Review Board (NRB), Anne Burke, who expressed her concern that the process
was being manipulated to weaken the work of the NRB and the Office of
Child and Youth Protection.
Both organizations believe that openness and “sunlight” is
necessary to begin the process of re-establishing the credibility of
the U.S. Bishops. Furthermore, the groups want the Bishops to honor the
commitment made in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young
People, which established an Office for Child and Youth Protection to
provide a vehicle of accountability and assistance to dioceses. The OCYP
is charged to assist individual dioceses in the implementation of “safe
environment” programs, to assist provinces and regions in the development
of appropriate mechanisms to audit adherence to policies, and to produce
an annual public report on the progress made in implementing the Charter’s
standards.
//end
About SNAP: SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
It was founded 14 years ago and has nearly 5,000 members.
About Voice of the Faithful: Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is a Mass.-based
worldwide movement of mainstream Catholics formed in response to the
clergy sexual abuse crisis. Membership exceeds 30,000 concerned persons
from 50 U.S. states and 39 countries, many of whom are actively involved
in one of over 200 Parish Voice affiliates.
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