HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
For immediate release: July 24, 2013
A predator priest has just been released on parole.
Fr. Mark Matson, a Catholic priest of the Colorado-based Theatine Fathers order, was tried and convicted in 2000 in Hawaii for sexual assaulting a 13-year-old boy. Matson was sentenced to 20 years.
This week, he was freed. (See official notice below.)
We believe Catholic officials, in Hawaii, California, Texas and Colorado, should use their vast resources – parish bulletins, church websites, diocesan newspapers and pulpit announcements – to warn families about him.
In addition to his Hawaii conviction, Matson has been accused of abusing boys in Colorado and California. Furthermore, a Colorado man filed a civil suit against Matson for sexual molesting and assaulting him at 13 years old at St. Andrew’s Seminary in the 1970s. (Miami attorney Adam Horowitz represented the victim.)
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