MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 1
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)
Catholic officials with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis admitted today to paying at least nine predator priests.
Their motivation for these payments, we maintain, is self-serving. We’re convinced that these predators know of other misdeeds and crimes by their church supervisors and peers. And we believe that high ranking Catholic officials pay known wrongdoers so those wrongdoers will stay silent about wrongdoing.
Archbishop Nienstadt and his staff know how to keep predators away from innocent children and vulnerable adults: call police promptly, reward – not punish – whistleblowers, give prosecutors all the files about known and suspected predators, put the names, photos and whereabouts of proven, admitted and credibly accused clerics on the archdiocesan website and in parish bulletins, put the predators in a remote, secure treatment centers, and lobby for – not against, reforming archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations. This isn’t rocket science. It’s common sense and common decency. But Nienstadt refuses to do most of this.
Nienstadt’s public relations team claims the archbishop pays predators so they won’t re-offend. Huh? Ask yourself: What other institution pays criminals so they don’t commit more crimes?
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