MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Oct. 4, 2013
Statement by Bob Schwiderski of Wayzata, Minnesota Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( skibrs@q.com , 952 471 3422 )
A police report says that top officials at the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese withheld evidence of child porn and now the alleged sex offender can’t be criminally charged.
And for a decade, several archdiocesan staffers hid the alleged child porn from parents, parishioners and the public.
Both moves are extraordinarily irresponsible and kept children at risk. Both moves prove that, in the Catholic hierarchy, when it comes to clergy sex crimes and cover ups, little has changed.
Jaded Catholic and citizens who are inclined to say “Ho hum, another Catholic sex scandal” should pay close attention here. This case is different. This is the worst case in Minnesota in more than a decade.
Because several Catholic officials protected him, a priest who had thousands of images of child porn and might otherwise have spent the last decade in prison won’t go to prison. Every day of this decade of deliberate deceit, secrecy and recklessness has happened AFTER America’s Catholic bishops solemnly pledged to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes.
Like similar cases in Kansas City (involving Bishop Robert Finn) and Philadelphia (involving Msgr. William Lynn), this case shows that high-ranking Catholic officials continue to obsess with protecting themselves and their reputations instead of protecting innocent kids and vulnerable adults.
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