NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer
Key local Catholic clergy for the first time Tuesday joined former victims of sexual abuse and their families in a public prayer service that supported victims and chastised some bishops who "frustrate" victims' search for justice.
The late afternoon ceremony drew about two dozen men and women to the front of Notre Dame Seminary where they joined in prayer, singing and a shared symbolic meal. Most participants were members of the local chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a group of childhood sexual abuse victims and their relatives.
But they were joined by the Rev. William Maestri, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the Rev. Pat Williams, the seminary's rector, prominent members of an archdiocese that has been accused by some of being insufficiently aggressive in responding to the sex-abuse crisis. Maestri and Williams prayed and sang with the group during the 15-minute event.
Archbishop Alfred Hughes would have attended, but was visiting family in the Boston area over the holidays, Maestri said.
Posted by kshaw at December 29, 2004 07:25 AM