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Victims' Advocate to Make Plea to New Archbishop By Peter Smith The Courier-Journal July 28, 2007 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070728/NEWS01/70728001/1008 Louisville (KY) — An advocate for victims of sexual abuse is calling on new Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz to urge those who may have been sexually abused by priests to come forward for help. Ann Brentwood, southeast regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), will hold a press conference today outside the archdiocese's headquarters asking Kurtz to help prosecutors in the upcoming retrial of Daniel C. Clark, a former priest whose sexual-abuse conviction in Bullitt County was overturned earlier this year by the Supreme Court of Kentucky. She plans to deliver a letter calling on the archbishop to release the names of all offending clergy — those from the Archdiocese of Louisville and those from other dioceses who have spent time here. She also wants the archdiocese to say where such priests are, and publicize a list of every church, hospital or other setting where they've been assigned. She said this should be put in all church bulletins and the archdiocesan newspaper. She's calling on Kurtz to make personal visits "to all parishes where molesting priests have been assigned, to issue apologies for crimes committed by the church in the person of molesting priests" and "emphatically beg victims and witnesses to come forward, get help and contact the police." Cecelia Price, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Louisville, said church officials already have cooperated with prosecutors in the Clark case by providing them with the information they have sought. On the other issues, she said, "Since this is apparently a formal request from SNAP to Archbishop Kurtz, we do not think we can respond until after we have actually received it and had time to discuss it with him." Contact: Peter Smith psmith@courier-journal.com |
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