Victims Blast Oregon Bishop in Lawsuit

SNAP
April 6, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/or_victims_blast_oregon_bishop_in_lawsuit

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com

A Catholic priest has lost his wrongful dismissal case against his bishop. This outcome helps explain why Catholic officials continue to endanger kids, move predators, and conceal evidence in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

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Fr. James Radloff lost his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, which charged that Baker Bishop Liam Cary had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed. The ruling wasn’t based on the facts. It was based on the “ministerial exception” which essentially says that religious employees can’t take legal action against their church superiors.

So in essence Catholic employees are serfs and their bishops are lords, immune to being scrutinized or second-guessed by secular officials. That means that church workers are largely powerless even when their bishops are corrupt.

And that’s why clergy sex crimes and cover ups keep happening in the church – because bishops continue to have nearly unlimited power to demote, discipline, defrock and denounce their employees, especially those employees who ‘blow the whistle’ on clerics who commit or conceal sexual violence against kids.

The remedy: Anyone who sees, suspects or suffers clergy sex crimes or cover ups should contact police, prosecutors, journalists, and groups like ours, and fight very hard to expose the truth, even if they are denied their day in court. And secular authorities should fight very hard to expose, prosecute and convict church officials who protect predators and endanger kids, even though the legal obstacles they may face are considerable.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)