RENO (NV)
Reno Gazette-Journal
Martha Bellisle RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 8/19/2005 12:40 am
Members of a group that supports people who have been sexually abused by priests delivered a letter Thursday to the office of retired Reno Bishop Phillip Straling, calling for him to “come clean” about abuse by clergy he worked with in Southern California.
“We are very disturbed by the sheer number of sex abuse cases to which Bishop Straling is linked,” members of the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in their letter.
“We are also upset that, in spite of a troubling track record on abuse, the bishop has publicly patted himself on the back for allegedly ‘aggressive steps’ he has taken on this issue, while at the same time, refusing to publicly discuss his involvement in or knowledge of sex crimes by some of California’s most notorious predator priests.”
Straling was not at the diocese office but is attending the World Youth Day celebrations with Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne, Germany, said Brother Matthew Cunningham, diocese chancellor.