NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
We hope
—that Msgr. Edward Arsenault (he has not been defrocked) will serve all or most of his sentence, and
—that Manchester’s Catholic bishop will tell citizens and Catholics whether he thinks Msgr. Arsenault is guilty of sexual misconduct.
Today, the bishop is meeting with his priests to discuss Msgr. Arsenault. But he owes it to his flock to disclose the status of the sexual misconduct allegations against Msgr. Arsenault.
We hope New Hampshire’s bishop will “come clean” about allegations that Msgr. Arsenault has been involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship with an adult. And we hope that anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes in New Hampshire will report to secular officials, not church officials.
There can be no true sexual consent between a doctor and a patient, a therapist and a client, a clergyman and a congregant, and a general and a soldier. Period. The power differential is just too great.
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