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	Survivors of Alleged Priest Abuse to Speak out By Francis X. Fay Jr The House May 28, 2009 http://www.thehour.com/story/470011 Two survivors of alleged priestly sexual abuse will offer their testimony at 7 p.m. Thursday before the Bridgeport Diocesan Voice of the Faithful chapter at the First Congregational Church on the Green. The public is welcome. Beth McCabe, Connecticut co-chairwoman of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and fellow survivor Brian Walsh will speak of their experiences and SNAP programs. McCabe, a native New Yorker, was prompted by her experience to work with troubled youth at the Department of Children & Families and at the Wilderness School in Connecticut. She has also worked for a nonprofit organization developing adventure programs for disabled adolescents and job skills for welfare recipients. She is currently a consultant working nationally to provide motivational and career empowerment training. Walsh, also a New Yorker, attended an elite Jesuit high school in Manhattan where he was allegedly molested by the headmaster and summarily expelled to cover up the crime. Now an author and composer, he suffered long bouts of depression and alcohol and drug abuse as he drifted throughout the United States as a young man. He is a drop out from the University of Notre Dame and has worked for four Fortune 500 companies, SNAP was founded to help survivors of unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood to live healthier, happier lives. It provides in-person and online help on the Internet. Local meeting information is available at www.snapct.org. SNAP will receive a VOTF Compassion Fund award at the June 4 meeting as part of the VOTF commitment to directly assist schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, and other charitable and educational organizations dedicated to serve the poor and needy. Marilyn Lowney, representing the Haitian Health Foundation (www.haitianhealthfoundation.org/), will receive a Voice of Compassion Fund award to assist health care development, relief and the hope of a future to more than 225,000 of the poorest people in over 100 rural mountain villages in southwestern Haiti. The Bridgeport VOTF is seeking contributions to its 2009-10 Voice of Compassion Fund for the direct support of human service charities. Contributions for the Voice of Compassion Fund may be sent to VOTF, PO Box 5044, Westport, CT. 06881.
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