CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Pedophile priests are expose
They worked in the Sacramento area
But each was “publicly outed” elsewhere
Victims want local Catholic officials to take action
“Almost no one here knows about them,” group says
SNAP to bishop: “Warn your flock & reach out to others”
WHAT
On the eve of the Pope Francis’ visit to the US, while holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will
–disclose the names of three predator priests who worked in the Sacramento area but mostly molested elsewhere and were “exposed” elsewhere, and
–urge anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” their crimes to call police, so that “both those who commit and those who conceal child sex crimes might be prosecuted.”
They will also prod local Catholic officials to:
–use church bulletins and pulpit announcements to seek out other “victims, witnesses and whistleblowers” who may be “suffering in silence,” and
–beg them to permanently post on church websites the names of local predator priests (like 30 other US bishops have done).
When:
Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 1:45 p.m.
Where:
Outside the Sacramento Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery”), 2011 Broadway, Sacramento, CA
Who:
Three-four adults who were abused as kids by clerics and who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man who is the organization’s long-time director
Why:
Some are aware of the 20 publicly accused Sacramento predator priests who have been suspended, prosecuted or sued in this area. Virtually no one, however, has heard about at least 11 predator priests who worked in Sacramento but were publicly exposed as child molesters in other places.
A victims group is especially concerned about three of these clerics who are still alive. That group, SNAP, wants Bishop Jaime Soto to publicize the predators’ names and “aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered their crimes” so that “these dangerous men might be prosecuted and kids might be safer.”
The clerics SNAP is most worried about are:
–Fr. Robert “Bob” Marsicek, who was first exposed as a credibly accused abuser in 2013 in Milwaukee where he now lives. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was a priest and Boy Scout chaplain in Sacramento. In 2012, Sacramento police launched an investigation of Fr. Marsicek after a local woman reported that he had abused her two sons in Sacramento.
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