MINNESOTA
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY KAY HARVEY
Pioneer Press
Hope comes in many forms.
Belinda Martinez has crafted it in the shape of origami cranes — a thousand of them.
That number is symbolic of 1,092 victims who for the first time last year alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests or deacons.
As she folded the paper cranes one by one, "it was astounding to me the number who've been hurt," says Martinez, co-founder and survivor liaison for the Minnesota chapter of Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
The newest tally of victims, recorded in a 2004 report of alleged clergy sex crimes by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, comes on the heels of 10,667 allegations of abuse by priests reported from 1950 to 2002.
The paper cranes, strung together in groups of 100 and tied in a circle, have been sent off in recent days to a meeting of the bishops' conference in Chicago, the Vatican in Rome, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a children's peace memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. The Sadako Memorial was built on a myth that Japanese gods will grant a wish to those who fashion a thousand origami cranes.