CA - Predator Priest Found Working in the Lausd. SNAP Responds

By Joelle Casteix
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
February 4, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ca_predator_priest_found_working_in_the_lausd_snap_responds

It's heartbreaking but predictable that a suspended LA predator priest has resurfaced working for a school district. Some 260 LA catholic clerics are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters. So in the month and years ahead, we expect we'll see more and more painful stories about these pedophile priests being found around vulnerable kids and unsuspecting families.

Catholic bishops recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, supervise and transfer priests, thousands of whom are or become pedophiles. When the pedophiles' crimes are finally exposed, usually bishops suspend them and then turn away, providing little or no real warnings to others or supervision for the pedophiles. Hundreds of these pedophiles turn up in other places where they hurt kids, working for or near schools, camps, day care centers or other churches.

Time and time again, we've begged bishops "Protect kids. Put your pedophiles in remote, secure, independently run treatment centers." Few bishops, however, take this bare minimum safety step.

Instead, they defrock the worst offenders and absolve themselves of any more responsibility. Or they let the offenders walk free and live or work around colleagues or neighbors who usually have no idea how dangerous these offenders are.

Bishops want to have their cake and eat it too. They aggressively take credit for the good priests do but quickly and vigorously distance themselves from priests when the priests are caught sexually assaulting kids. But they don't act responsibly and make sure these pedophiles are kept away from kids - either by helping law enforcement prosecute them or by housing and monitoring them in secular facilities.

This is another reason we urge LA citizens and Catholics to read the newly-released abuse and cover up files. The more all of us know about clerics who commit or conceal child sex crimes, the better we'll be able to prevent such crimes and cover ups in the future.

And this is another reason why we beg LA law enforcement to keep digging, keep seeking out victims, keep working with whistleblowers, keep nudging witnesses, keep issuing subpoenas, and doing everything in their power to prosecute the enablers - the bishops, priests, brothers, seminarians, nuns and other church staffers who essentially helped these 260 pedophiles remain under the radar and around children.

Not until the enablers are jailed will we start to see church officials begin to act more responsibly.