AUSTRALIA
SNAP Australia
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a footpath news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast the top Catholic official for refusing to cooperate with a police investigation. They will also prod him to
–hold a series of open public meetings across the archdiocese and explain his reversal and his involvement in a predator priest’s crimes, and
— post the names, photos and whereabouts of all predator priests on his archdiocesan and parish websites, so that parents can better protect their kids and so that victims can better heal.
WHEN
Monday, 3 December at 12:30 pm
WHERE
Outside the St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 39 Wakefield Street in Adelaide
WHO
One or two members of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a US woman who is the organisation’s founder
WHY
One of Australia’s most influential Catholic prelates is refusing to cooperate with a police investigation. He is Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson who is accused of concealing child sexual crimes by at least two priests, including serial child offender Father Denis McAlinden and failing to report them to police. (McAlinden, originally from Ireland, died in 2005 and may have molested hundreds of kids.)
In May 2010, Wilson’s spokesman told The Advertiser that Wilson would welcome the “opportunity” to be involved in any police investigation. (Australia’s top Catholic official, Cardinal George Pell, has similarly pledged that bishops would cooperate with law enforcement in clergy child sex cases.)
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