UNITED STATES
Ms. Magazine
March 13, 2015 by Anita Little
This March, for Women’s History Month, the Ms. Blog is profiling Wonder Women who have made history—and those who are making history right now. Join us each day as we bring you the stories of iconic and soon-to-be-famous feminist change-makers.
In September of 2011, Barbara Blaine, the founder of the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, traveled to The Hague to file allegations of “crimes against humanity” against the Vatican at the International Criminal Court. Her goal: to hold the Pope and the Catholic hierarchy accountable for the rampant sexual abuse by priests that had been systematically concealed for decades.
The move was unprecedented and The New York Times called it “the most substantial effort yet” to hold pedophile priests responsible for their actions.
Though the ICC decided not to prosecute or even investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and other Catholic leaders, SNAP’s filing of the complaint brought much-needed worldwide attention to the scourge of priest abuse and gave a voice to survivors who testified in the ICC filing.
Her journey to the steps of The Hague began in 1988, long before the priest abuse epidemic was well-known. That was the year Blaine, a lawyer and social worker, founded SNAP. Its mission was simple: expose predators, protect the vulnerable and empower survivors. Blaine was pushed to create the organization after years of suffering privately from the shame and trauma of her own experience with priest molestation as an 8th grader in Toledo, Ohio.
SNAP started out as a small support group with its nascent meetings taking place in the Chicago homeless shelter that Blaine ran at the time; SNAP now has more than 12,000 members and 65 chapters. It even created branches for other religious groups after abuse survivors from non-Catholic backgrounds began to approach SNAP for support.
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