MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
Modeling her efforts after a Japanese myth granting wishes to anyone who folds 1,000 origami paper cranes, sexual-abuse survivor Belinda Martinez of Maplewood "released" hundreds of golden cranes this week to coincide with separate national meetings of Catholic bishops and abuse victims.
Martinez, co-founder of the Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, mailed cranes to Pope Benedict XVI in memory of abuse victims who committed suicide; to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops symbolizing "predators protected by the church''; and to St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn symbolizing new victims who came forward in 2004.
"The cranes are strung in groups of 100 and tied in a circle,'' Martinez said.
She also sent 1,000 cranes to the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, in memory of children killed by atomic bombs in 1945.
A national conference of SNAP begins today in Chicago. The U.S. Catholic bishops will meet in Chicago beginning Thursday.
Posted by kshaw at June 10, 2005 06:03 PM