BishopAccountability.org
	Group Blasts Corpus Christi Bishop over Predator Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests February 25, 2011 http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2011_press_releases/022511_group_blasts_corpus_christi_bishop_over_predator.htm WHAT As parishioners leave mass, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand out fliers urging them to ask current and former church employees and members with information about clergy sex crimes to come forward, get help, and call police, & protect kids They will also publicly urge the Corpus Christi bishop to; -- post on his website the proven, admitted and credibly accused predator clergy, and -- personally visit parishes where predators have worked prodding victims to call police and prosecutors so wrongdoers can be jailed and wrongdoing can be prevented. They will also blast Corpus Christi Catholic officials for not doing more to find and comfort others molested by a notorious child molesting cleric who now faces criminal charges WHEN Sunday, Feb. 27 at 12:15 p.m. WHERE On the sidewalk outside the Corpus Christi Cathedral, 505 Upper Broadway in Corpus Christi TX WHO Two-three clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a San Antonio woman whose son was molested as a child and who later took his own life WHY Late last month, a civil child sex abuse lawsuit settled involving a serial predator priest, Fr. John M. Fiala, who faces charges of molesting a San Antonio area boy in 2008. He was arrested in Dallas and charged with trying to hire someone to kill his accuser. (A story about Fiala is in the latest edition of PEOPLE Magazine.) In September 2010, Fiala was indicted on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of aggravated sexual assault by threat in Edwards County, where Fiala is accused of raping the teen at gunpoint, according to the charges and the lawsuit. He was ordained in Omaha Nebraska and has worked in two others states (Missouri and Kansas) and in two Texas cities (San Antonio and Corpus Christi). None of the church officials where Fiala worked have done enough, SNAP feels, to seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes. The group wants bishops and other high ranking church staff to personally visit the parishes where he worked, begging victims and witnesses to contact police. SNAP also wants announcements and pleas to be published in parish bulletins and diocesan websites. SNAP also wants Corpus Christi's Catholic bishop 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 central Illinois. Second, SNAP wants him to work hard to find and help anyone who may have been hurt by a priest who is accused of sexually violating a boy and hiring a 'hit man' to kill him. According to a Boston-based independent research group called BishopAccoutnabilty.org, there are seven publicly accused Corpus Christi diocesan child molesting clerics. SNAP notes that the actual number of Corpus Christi area pedophile priests is likely much higher because BishopAccountability.org lists only those clerics against whom allegations have been lodge in the public domain – in civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution or news accounts. 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 Fiala repeatedly assaulted the youth from January to August 2008 while working at Sacred Heart of Mary parish in Rocksprings (in Edwards County, west of San Antonio). It's part of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Fiala also worked at nearby St. Raymond Mission in Leakey and St. Mary Magdalen Mission in Camp Wood. Then-San Antonio's Archbishop Jose Gomez removed Fiala from ministry in October 2008. Fiala belongs to a Robstown Texas-based religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. His photo is available at BishopAccountability.org http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-F.html CONTACT David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Garcia Boehland, b.healinghands@att.net, 210-723-5-8329 or 210-723-8286
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