ALCOA (TN)
Knoxville Sentinel
By ROBERT WILSON, rlwilson2594@msn.com
November 18, 2005
ALCOA - SNAP of Tennessee on Thursday exhibited its chain of alleged sexual abuse victims outside a Roman Catholic church to call attention to what the organization says is a wide-scale cover-up of abuse cases across Tennessee.
SNAP is the acronym of a national organization that stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
As part of its media event Thursday, SNAP of Tennessee exhibited a chain that had purple plastic silhouettes of people - some named, others shown as John Does - who the group says they have documented as victims of sexual abuse by priests in Tennessee.
The Tennessee chapter's current campaign, "Breaking the Silence in Tennessee," seeks to identify both predator priests and their victims and to persuade the church to reveal what SNAP State Director Susan Vance says is a "secret list" of priests who have committed acts of sexual abuse.