Il--Victims " Out" Nine Catholic Predators

By Barbara Dorris
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
January 15, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/il_victims_out_nine_catholic_predators

Victims “out” nine Catholic predators

They have not been exposed in Chicago before

And none of their records will be released by archdiocese

Yet all worked and lived in the area, sometimes for years

George keeps “hairsplitting” & hiding religious order offenders

Group to church officials: “Disclose ALL child molesting clerics”

SNAP begs Catholics: “Read the actual documents when posted next week”

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, on the day hundreds of pages of long secret clergy sex abuse and cover up records will be turned over, victims and supporters will release names and information about nine child molesting clerics who worked in the Chicago area, abused elsewhere and have almost never been publicly disclosed in this area before as offenders.

They will also

---urge Cardinal Francis George to post names, photos & records of ALL archdiocesan predators (not just the ones who are sued),

-- do the same with religious order clerics, so that kids can be protected and victims can heal, and

---blast him for continuing to protect a third or more of the abusive clerics who have been in Chicago. 

WHEN

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014 at 11:15 a.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the Chicago archdiocesan headquarters, 835 N. Rush Street (corner of  East Chestnut) in downtown Chicago

WHO

Four-five adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics.

WHY

Today, because he has been forced to, Cardinal Francis George turns over records about 30 credibly accused predator priests to victims’ attorneys. Next week, those documents will be made public.

But George and his staff continue to hide the identities of dozens and dozens of other proven, admitted and credibly accused Chicago child molesting clerics. For the healing of victims and the safety of kids, SNAP believes their names, photos, whereabouts and work histories should be disclosed by church officials (whether they are diocesan or religious order clerics and whether they have been sued or not).

George refuses to give information about 1/3 of all predator priests who are or have been in Chicago, because they belong to religious orders. But SNAP considers this “self-serving hair-splitting.”

At least 14 U.S. dioceses have released lists of accused priests include religious order clerics. They are the Archdiocese of Baltimore MD, Diocese of Davenport IA, Diocese of Detroit MI, Diocese of Fairbanks AK, Diocese of Fort Worth TX, Diocese of Gallup NM, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Diocese of Monterey CA, *Archdiocese of Philadelphia (includes just one order priest), Diocese of Spokane WA, Diocese of St. Petersburg FL, Diocese of San Diego, Diocese of Toledo OH, Diocese of Tucson AZ.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/diocesan_and_order_lists.htm

Over the past few months, largely using sources in the public record, SNAP has learned about nine sex offender clergy who live/lived and/or work/worked in the Chicago archdiocese. Almost none of them have attracted media attention here (though all of them have garnered mainstream media coverage elsewhere.) And almost all of them  belong to religious orders.

SNAP will disclose the two page list which includes a child molesting nun (Sister Agnes Santomassimo), a cleric who was born in and returned to Chicago after molesting 150 kids in Alaska, and three priests who belong to a Chicago-based religious order.

In the soon-to-be-released hundreds of pages of archdiocesan records, SNAP suspects there will be names of dozens of Chicago area Catholic officials who knew of or suspected child sex crimes by their colleagues but either hid or ignored those crimes. Each of those complicit individuals should be exposed and punished, the group maintains, so that cover ups - now and in the future - will be deterred.

SNAP will urge Chicago Catholics to “ignore Cardinal George’s spin, read the records themselves, and insist that those who covered ups clergy sex crimes be harshly and publicly disciplined and denounced.”

Here is George’s list of roughly 65 predator priests:

http://www.archchicago.org/c_s_abuse/report_032006/list.pdf

However, here’s a list of 121 Chicago predator priests – compiled through public records by an independent organization:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm

Contact: SNAPdorris@gmail.com