ROCKFORD (IL)
WREX
Author: Marissa Alter
Posted On: Monday, August 22, 2005
Rockford--A national group speaks out against a pamphlet the Rockford Catholic Diocese gives to employees and volunteers. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is outraged over the diocese's guidelines on how to report suspicions of sex abuse. Diocese administrators argue the people who got the pamphlet already know the proper procedures.
The document spells out how Rockford Diocese workers should report suspicions of sex abuse. While it provides a diocese's phone number and mailing address, there's no mention of calling the police. David Clohessy, theAbuse Tracker Director of SNAP says, "It looks like one more attempt by Catholic Church officials to handle sex crimes in-house instead of turning to the independent professionals in law enforcement."
But Owen Phelps, the Diocese's Communication Director, argues that's not the case. Phelps says the pamphlet was sent as supplemental material to volunteers and staff. Those people were previously briefed and know they're supposed to report all incidents of sexual abuse to legal authorities. Clohessy says, "Whatever else might be written in some other publication or said in some other format, there's no excuse for not having it in the official diocesian written sex abuse material, the strong admonition to call police and prosecuters. There's no excuse for that."