Saginaw Bishop Must Act; His Predecessor Is under Fire

SNAP
June 10, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/_mi_saginaw_bishop_must_act_his_predecessor_is_under_fire

In a deposition released yesterday that's attracting national attention (The Washington Post, NBC News, the Religion News Service, and elsewhere), former Saginaw bishop Robert Carlson said 193 time he "couldn't recall" information about predator priests. He also made three other startling claims;

1) Carlson admits that he never called the police about known or suspected clergy sex crimes at any point in his 24 years as a priest, bishop and other top church official in Minnesota.

2) Carlson testified under oath that he wasn't sure whether he knew it was illegal for priests to have sex with children when he served as chancellor of the Twin Cities archdiocese in the 1980s.

[mprnews.org]

3) And another Catholic bishop testified under oath – in a different deposition – that Carlson advised him to claim memory loss if he were deposed in clergy sex abuse cases.

Clearly, he's being deceptive. And he continues to be deceptive in clergy sex cases here in St. Louis.

Given this, we can't help but suspect he also concealed clergy crimes during his years in Saginaw (2005 - 2009).

So we call on current Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone to do what Carlson never did and take a firm stand to protect children and expose wrongdoing. He must post on his website the names, photos and whereabouts of all predator priests (proven, admitted and credibly accused). He needs to personally visit the parishes where they worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. And he should publicly denounce his predecessor for being deceitful.

And we urge every current and former Saginaw Catholic Church member and church employee to report suspected or known child sex crimes to law enforcement and ask their friends and family if any of them were hurt by any child molesting cleric.

[news.stlpublicradio.org]