Victims praise Archbishop for abuse comments

By Barbara Blaine
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
April 8, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/

We applaud Archbishop Blase Cupich for saying, at Parish Leadership Day at Marist High School, that “People are leaving (the church). A lot of people left because of the abuse crisis.”

(See YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ2hwxSeF8Y&feature=youtu.be)

Catholic officials often minimize the impact of the abuse and cover-up crisis on church attendance. We are grateful any time a Catholic figure talks honestly about this on-going scandal.

It would be more accurate, of course, to say that parishioners leave because of the cover-up, rather than the abuse. Most parishioners understand that there are child predators in every occupation or institution. What outrages and frustrates them the most, surveys show, is that bishops often ignore, minimize, hide and enable these horrific crimes against children and help the predators while endangering the kids.

“Yes, they may have been hurt,” Cupich goes on to say about Catholics who leave. We hope he will also acknowledge that many times, people actually feel driven out of the church by deceitful, arrogant and callous clerics, including the church officials who have concealed and still conceal heinous crimes against children.