ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 4
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)
Every time parishioners rally around a credibly accused child molesting cleric, it’s sad, tiresome and hurtful, to vulnerable kids, wounded and ultimately to the parish itself.
That’s what’s happening now in Peoria with Fr. Terry Cassidy, who was suspended last month by Bishop Daniel Jenky because of an abuse report.
It’s sad because it show how desperately people want to believe that a seemingly normal man can commit such heinous crimes. And it’s sad because it shows how little many church-goers have learned about child sex abuse in the 30 years since the first US pedophile priest attracted national headlines.
It’s tiresome because the same pattern emerges in case after case after case. Parishioners are “shocked.” Because the priest is good at this or that – homilies, service work, one-on-one counseling or boosting church membership – parishioners somehow can’t imagine that he can simultaneously be sick at some deep emotional level. Because congregants and church-goers desperately grasp for some “other explanation” (like the Episcopal minister who thinks Fr. Cassidy has been thrown “under the bus” because of some theological or liturgical dispute).
And it’s hurtful because public support for credibly accused abusers intimidates and depresses victims, witnesses and whistleblowers. It makes people less willing to report known and suspected child sex crimes. So it makes kids more vulnerable.
The bishop and parishioners are essentially playing ‘good cop, bad cop.’ The bishop suspended Fr. Cassidy. Yet at the same time, he lets parishioners publicly rally and back a credibly accused abuser.
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