BishopAccountability.org
	Sex Abuse Victims Denounce Secrecy Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests January 24, 2011 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2011_press_releases/012411_sex_abuse_victims_denounce_secrecy.htm WHAT: Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose the names of three credibly accused child molesting priests who have -- never been publicly accused in this area before, -- spent time at four local Catholic institutions and -- been convicted or had recently-disclosed settlements paid by church officials to their victims. The victims will also --criticize the Vatican officials for their secrecy and disregard for secular laws and authority, and --DC's archbishop for refusing to post on his website the names of admitted, proven and credibly accused child molesting clerics They will beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call police, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing. WHEN: Monday, January 24th at 1:00 PM (during lunch hour) WHERE: Outside the Papal Nuncio, (Vatican Embassy) 3339 Massachusetts Avenue NW, in Washington DC WHO: 4-6 members of support group called SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAPnetwork.org WHY: Twice this week, long-secret Vatican letters have surfaced telling bishops to hide information about priests' misdeeds from criminal and civil authorities. The documents contradict long-standing Vatican claims that top church officials don't order bishops to be secretive about child molesting clerics. A 1997 letter tells Irish bishops that the Vatican has "serious reservations" about making it mandatory for bishops to report known and suspected child sex crimes to law enforcement. And 1984 letter tells a US bishop that "the files of a bishop concerning his priests are altogether private (and) that no priest's files will be sent to any lawyer or judge whatever." Both are signed by high-ranking Vatican officials and were never disclosed publicly until this week. Both are posted at BishopAccountability.org (and copies will be available at today's event). Even now, despite Pope Benedict's apologies and promises, "current Vatican policy, updated last year, offers merely a nonbinding advisory — not a firm mandate — that diocesan officials should report crimes to police" (according to the New York Times). SNAP wants DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl to do what 24 other bishops have done, and post on his website, for the sake of public safety, the names, whereabouts and priestly status of child molesting clerics who are or have been in Today, SNAP is disclosing the names of three credibly accused predator priests who have worked in the DC area but whose identities as molesters have never been publicly disclosed here before. They are Fr. Donald Joyce, Fr. Myron F. Bullock and Fr. Walter Dayton Salisbury. (Bullock is deceased.) (Photos of 2 priests will be provided.) Salisbury has twice been convicted for molesting kids (once in DC in the mid-90s) and was found last month living in public housing and serving on a local government board in Maine. He worked at St. Luke Parish on Capitol Hill. Joyce was at Oblate College in DC three times (1959-60, 1983-85, 1988-89 and 1994-98) and spent time at two other local Catholic institutions - the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Provincial Residence (1989-1992) and the Oblate Center for Mission Studies (1989-92). A Google search this month shows Joyce as Director of Libraries at Oblate College in San Antonio, where he has lived since 1998. (Oblate University website, 1/10/11) Bullock was at Catholic University in DC from 1957-60. Church officials have paid settlements to at least one of his victims and at least one of Joyce's victims, according to Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian. (According to a Boston-based independent research group called BishopAccountabilty.org, there are 25 publicly accused DC archdiocesan child molesting clerics. The actual number of DC area pedophile priests is likely much higher because researchers list only those clerics against whom allegations have been lodged in the public domain – in news accounts, criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.) In 2002, Baltimore became the first US diocese to disclose names. A good current example is the Philadelphia archdiocese: http://archphila.org/protection/Updates/update_main.htm. Here is a list of all the dioceses that have disclosed names: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm Contact – David Lorenz 301 906 9161, Becky Ianni 703 801 6044, Bill Casey 703 568 3438, b13909@comcast.net, David Clohessy 314 566 9790 cell SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com
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