MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: July 12, 2013
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
First, we commend this brave family for cooperating with law enforcement. That takes courage and compassion.
It’s always easiest to do nothing. It’s always tempting to believe an adult over a child (especially a trusted religious authority figure). It’s always easy to naively assume that wrongdoing was unintentional or a one time “slip.” It’s always appealing to worry strictly about oneself and let others worry about protecting other kids.
This family obviously is choosing a different course. They are helping police and prosecutors. They are acting responsibly and compassionately. We applaud them for doing the right thing, however hard it may be. They are protecting others from a dangerous predator.
But we hope they don’t have to carry this burden alone. We hope that others, who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Jiang and misdeeds by Archbishop Carlson have already come forward. If not, we hope those individuals will do so. Child molesters rarely molest once. We strongly suspect Fr. Jiang has hurt others.
We’re troubled by the $20,000 Fr. Jiang reportedly left with this family. But we’re more troubled by Archbishop Carlson’s silence about this charge of witness tampering. As best we can tell, in this case and in others, he’s never once spoken out against efforts by church employees or volunteers to discourage others reporting of child sex crimes. We urge Carlson to strongly denounce such serious crimes.
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