Evidence Shows Church Officials Delayed Reporting

SNAP
January 29, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_evidence_shows_church_officials_delayed_reporting

We are deeply disappointed in Twin Cities law enforcement officials.

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Given what's happening in the Twin Cities – now and over the past five months – it is very tough for us to understand why subpoenas and search warrants haven't been used yet.

Police and prosecutors beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward, as they should. But police and prosecutors need to respect our pain by doing some real homework on the long-standing, widely-documented and on-going pattern of persistent deceit by Catholic officials – in Minnesota and across the world – in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

It speaks volumes that

–- the veteran archdiocesan abuse “handler,” Fr. Kevin McDonough, refuses to be questioned by police, and

–- the archbishop refuses to order McDonough to sit for questioning.

Those two simple and alarming facts scream “cover up” to anyone who's listening.

We could cite many examples, even recent ones (like Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City), in which high ranking Catholic officials have hidden evidence from law enforcement officials. But look at the case of Fr. Gerald Robinson in Toledo, who is now in prison for brutally murdering a nun.

Police investigators arrested him and asked diocesan staff for Fr. Robinson's personnel file. They were given three pages.

Police then executed two “no knock” search warrants on the diocese. They recovered hundreds and hundreds of pages of more records, records that had never been turned over to the police. Those records led to Fr. Robinson's conviction.

Despite our disappointment, we join with Twin Cities law enforcement in begging those with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover up to call police and prosecutors. Our justice system isn't perfect. But it's our best chance of protecting kids, exposing criminals and deterring crimes.

Finally, we beg police and prosecutors to stop sugar-coating the truth about the alleged “cooperation” by church officials. Nienstedt and his staff are doing the absolute bare minimum because they fear going to jail. That's self-preservation, not cooperation.

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

Barbara Dorris 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com