By Carolyn Costello
NBC 17
March 15, 2007
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2007-03-15-0010.html
Raleigh, N.C. — Victims of alleged priest sexual abuse gathered outside the Raleigh Diocese offices Thursday to show support for a Cardinal Gibbons High School student who says she was abused by her coach.
The press conference turned into a heated conversation with Diocese officials and ended in a meeting with the city's new bishop.
A Raleigh Diocese spokesman was put on the defensive when he came outside Thursday morning to invite victim advocates inside to sit down with Bishop Michael Burbidge.
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The group says the Raleigh Diocese, which has reported more than a dozen cases of priest sexual abuse in the past, hasn't done enough to reach out to victims. And they don't believe the church officials have taken recent allegations against a teacher at Cardinal Gibbons High School seriously.
The group agreed to the meeting but was skeptical.
Meanwhile their reason for being here Thursday was to support a student at Cardinal Gibbons who accused teacher and Coach Justin Scranton of taking indecent liberties.
They also had a message to the public when it comes to supporting someone accused of abuse.
"It's fine to do that if you choose to but please do it privately because it takes so much for someone to come forward to begin with," one person said.
Meanwhile the groups' meeting with Bishop Burbidge was short. Only two people were brought into to see him and they simply scheduled a time to meet in the future. It was Burbidge's first meeting with abuse victims since his installation last August.
Contact: ccostello@wncn.com
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