Snap's Letter to California Victims

By David Clohessy
SNAP
February 1, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ca_snap_s_letter_to_california_victims

As you've likely heard, thousands of pages of long-secret church records about child molesting clerics and their corrupt colleagues are finally surfacing in Los Angeles.

Make no mistake about it - this is a huge victory for innocent kids and wounded adults. And you deserve the credit!

Maybe you aren't one of the 500 LA survivors who sought justice in court. Maybe you weren't abused by an LA area priest, nun, seminarian, bishop, brother or other church employee. Maybe you aren't a victim (but a loved one or a caring parishioner). None of this matters.

What matters is that progress is being made. This accomplishment is due to you and to every single person in California who joined SNAP or spoke up or called a radio program or wrote a letter to the editor or stopped donating to a diocese or in any way lent a hand - large or small - to our movement.

We thank you and we congratulate you.

You have made an enormous difference. Kids are safer because of your efforts. Adults are validated because of your work. The truth - at least a big chunk of it - is being revealed because of you care about prevention and healing.

So what now?

We hope you'll go to Bishop Accountability.org & read these records. We hope you'll urge others to do so. We hope you'll talk to your classmates, friends, relatives and neighbors about the lessons these files teach us, about calling 911 when you see or suspect abuse, and reporting to secular authorities, not church figures.

We also hope you'll consider writing more letters to the editor and making short, positive comments at the end of news articles. (See helpful links below) We can, and should, use this moment to continue educating the public about abuse and cover ups. (As you know, media attention is very fleeting. Our opportunity is now. Next week will be too late.)

If you know or have any records about abuse in LA that do NOT appear in these files, we hope you'll let us know right away. We strongly believe much evidence has been destroyed. If you have any of it - even one page - we hope you'll share it with us or with law enforcement, so that more of the truth can be known and disclosed and so that more wrongdoers can be identified and more wrongdoing can be deterred.

Again, congratulations on this historic achievement. We are proud to work with you in protecting the vulnerable, healing the wounded, exposing the truth and preventing future crimes and cover ups.

Barbara Blaine 312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org

Barbara Dorris 314-862-7688, SNAPdorris@gmail.com

David Clohessy 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Joelle Casteix 949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com