MINNESOTA
Fairmont Sentinel
July 5, 2013
Jodelle Greiner – Staff Writer, Fairmont Sentinel
BLUE EARTH – Bob Schwiderski doesn’t believe that people abused by priests suffer more than other survivors of sexual abuse.
“Damage from sexual abuse affects all people,” said the Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “Just because I was abused by a Catholic priest does not make me a special survivor.”
SNAP follows abuse cases and is aware of the one involving Father Leo Charles Koppala, a Catholic priest in Blue Earth who was accused of molesting an 11-year-old child in June.
Schwiderski praised the child, who told a trusted adult; the adult who immediately contacted police; and law enforcement, prosecutors and other officials who tackled the case so quickly.
“Silence is not golden when it comes to child abuse,” he said. “Silence is deadly when it comes to child abuse.”
Schwiderski was a child in Hector when he was abused by a Catholic priest, and he wasn’t the only one. He is critical of the Catholic Church, which moved the priests around instead of disciplining them, he said, and of the conspiracy of silence in the community that allowed the priests to continue to abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.