ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 3, 2014
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell,SNAPclohessy@aol.com
Catholic archbishop admits 115 St. Louis church staff accused of abuse
Revelation comes in a new court filing that church officials wanted to be kept secret
A legal document filed late yesterday by the St. Louis Catholic archdiocese reveals that 115 church employees have been accused of child sexual abuse.
Lawyers Archbishop Robert Carlson asked that the document be kept secret. But a Missouri appeals court disagreed. It is available on CaseNet. (ED 100882) and on the SNAP website:
Doc 1 – See pages 188 – 194
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This is more than double the number of previously known predators in the archdiocese. Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believe the real number of predatory priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers, and other church employees is substantially higher.
“On a well-documented and widely-respected website called BishopAccountability.org, there are 52 names of local child molesting clerics,” said SNAP’s Barbara Dorris. “So Carlson is hiding more predators than have been exposed over decades of disclosures. In other words, local parents and parishioners know fewer than half of the proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics than the archdiocese does.”
“For the safety of kids, Carlson should post on church websites the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of every last one of these individuals, starting with those who are alive and have never been ‘outed’ before,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “.”
The figure comes in an appeal sought by Carlson to delay having to turn over predators’ names to attorneys representing a 20 year old woman who says she was repeatedly molested by Fr. Joseph D. Ross at St. Cronan’s parish in St. Louis city.
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