KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Calling Kansas City's Catholic bishop "the worst in the country" to clergy sex abuse victims, a support group for such victims is urging local Catholics to stop donating to the diocese, and instead give "generously and directly to charities and schools."
Dozens of civil sexual abuse cases against area priests seem stalled in the courts, they say, because Bishop Raymond Boland and his lawyers keep filing dozens and dozens of legal motions designed to "keep the truth hidden, the diocesan coffers full, the bishop's reputation intact, and the victims in the cold," according to said Mike Hunter, the Kansas City director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victims' support group.
"Nearly all of their nearly 100 motions have been thrown out by judges," said Hunter. "But Boland insists on trying to wear us down and overwhelm us with mountains of increasingly desperate motions. He clearly wants Catholics to remain ignorant about the horrific crimes and cover ups that have happened here. And he wants us to give up and go away."
But Boland's tough legal approach is making victims more firmly resolved to "get the truth out," Hunter says.
No other diocese in America has taken such an "over the top, aggressive approach," said SNAP national director David Clohessy of St. Louis.
Posted by kshaw at February 11, 2005 10:02 PM