BishopAccountability.org
	Support Group Pushes Website Change WDIO July 1, 2010 http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S1633304.shtml?cat=10335 [with video] The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests, or SNAP, is urging the the Superior Catholic Diocese to reach out to victims of clergy abuse. Their hope is to encourage victims to come forward, to allow the healing process to begin. SNAP says that victims deserve answers. They are now pushing the Superior Diocese to update their website. SNAP wants the website to include information about clergy members who have abused in the past. Eyewitness News spoke with a clerical employee of the Diocese who told us any person who could comment, was not available. We also spoke with Minnesota SNAP Director Bob Schwiderski who told us getting victims help requires more than online information. What it also requires is a willingness on their part to come forward. Schwiderski said "many people that have been abused by the religious are burdened with shame and guilt. It's a crime of silence, and they stay silent and thereby the injury continues to be a cancer." Schwiderski says he'd like to see the Diocese take responsibility for the actions of some clergy, but it has not. Leaders of SNAP wrote to Superior Diocese Bishop Peter Christensen pushing him to "aggressively reach out to anyone with information about a predator priest." They also asked him to "post all the names of Superior area child molesting clerics on the Diocesan website." SNAP would like to see the Diocese not only put the names of the offenders online, but also current places of service and home addresses. SNAP is urging more than victims to come forward. They are hoping anyone who saw, or even suspected clergy sex crimes calls the police and exposes the wrongdoers.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.