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	Court to Open Clergy Sex Records; SNAP Responds SNAP January 21, 2011 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2011_statements/012011_court_to_open_clergy_sex_records_snap_responds.htm Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com) California’s highest court faced a choice - siding with those at risk of and are wounded from child sex crimes or with those who commit and conceal child sex crimes. We are grateful they favor the vulnerable and the injured rather than the criminal and the complicit. Because of this wise ruling, California citizens will soon know much more about child molesting clerics and their corrupt church supervisors. By opening these long-secret Catholic documents to public scrutiny, the justice system is making children safer and deterring future cover ups. We applaud this decision and hope it will help persuade other judges to similarly opt for openness over secrecy. (SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org) Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com) ************** http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011906339.html?hpid=sec-religion CA high court paves way for release of friar files By GILLIAN FLACCUS The Associated Press - Wednesday, January 19, 2011; 9:32 PM LOS ANGELES -- The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review an appeals court decision to unseal the files of nine Franciscan friars accused of child molestation, meaning thousands of pages of potentially incriminating documents will be made public within weeks. The order covers four categories of files kept by the religious order on the California friars, including psychological records, confidential papers and documents related to the defrocking of some of the men over sex abuse allegations, said Tim Hale, an attorney for plaintiffs whose lawsuits prompted the ruling. The files are expected to contain records of the friars' sessions with therapists and psychotherapists, disciplinary files and defrocking paperwork - all things that could show how much the Franciscans knew about their employees' behavior and when they knew it. In some cases, files related to the defrocking of priests and other clerics include correspondence between local religious leaders and the Vatican. The Franciscans are disappointed with the ruling but are preparing for the papers to be released within three weeks as directed by the court's order, said Brian Brosnahan, an attorney for the Franciscans. When the files become public, it will have a chilling effect on the willingness of future priests and others to be honest with therapists and psychologists about any incidents of molestation, said Robert Howie, an attorney representing six of the individual friars. "They would be reluctant to reveal it to a person that their employer sent them to because it would be public if the employer was allowed to touch it," he said. Twenty-five plaintiffs settled lawsuits for $28.4 million in 2006, and the agreement called for the release of confidential files. Most of the accused friars, however, did not sign the settlement agreement. A trial judge ruled that the public interest outweighed the friars' privacy rights, but six of the friars appealed. The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled last September that the papers could be made public. "All citizens have a compelling interest in knowing if a prominent and powerful institution has cloaked in secrecy decades of sexual abuse," the court wrote in its opinion. Six of the friars are still living and three are dead, Hale said. Supreme Court of California Case Notification for: S187999 the following transaction has occurred in: IN RE CLERGY CASES I For more information on this case, go to: http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/disposition.cfm?dist=0&doc_id=1961200 For opinions, go to: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/opinions.cgi?Courts=S
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