UNITED STATES
Telegram & Gazette
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press Writer
CORONA, Calif.— The leafletting outside St. Matthew Catholic Church started well, with parishioners accepting the brochures about clergy abuse being handed out by alleged molestation victims.
Then a woman standing on a church balcony screamed "You're evil!" and a man made an obscene gesture. The parish called police, who told the protesters they couldn't leaflet without a city permit.
The angry reaction came as no surprise to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abuse by Priests, or SNAP. Since the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic church blew up in 2002, SNAP has sought the spotlight by publicly portraying itself as the official voice of thousands of victims.
While those victims embrace SNAP as a support group and a means to win long-overdue justice, its tactics have alienated many practicing Catholics and even some of the very people it hopes to help.
Some abuse victims said the group is too angry and confrontational, while others insist it's not activist enough. Others fault SNAP for its close financial relationship with clergy abuse attorneys, saying the link fuels perceptions that victims are only after the church's money.
The attitudes reflect the deep divisions among victims over how to proceed now that the first wave of the scandal has subsided. That question has profound significance for victims, many of whom will never see their molesters criminally prosecuted because of the statute of limitations.
Posted by kshaw at December 15, 2004 01:10 PM