NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)
Yesterday, Pope Francis refused to criticize, even obliquely, even one US Catholic official yesterday for words or deeds that hurt innocent kids or wounded victims.
So today, while he’s in New York, we hope the pope will discipline or at least denounce two Syracuse bishops who have blamed victims of predator priests for their victimization. (This news just came to light last week. )
In 2011, current Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham was asked a clear, simple question, under oath: “did the (abused) boy commit a sin?” He made a clear, simple reply: “The boy is culpable.” He later used the word “accomplice.”
And his predecessor, Bishop James Moynihan, told abuse victim Charles Bailey ‘The age of reason is 7, so if you’re at least 7 you’re culpable for your actions.’
These are inexcusable, irresponsible comments from powerful, smart men. They will deter others who were raped and sodomized from reporting criminals and protecting kids.
Pope Francis should punish these prelates or at least harshly and publicly criticize them so that other bishops might think twice before uttering such callous views in the future.
This warped, self-serving view – that a child is to blame for his or her victimization by a priest – stems from the exalted and ‘superior’ status clerics give themselves. Bishops think this way because they’ve been indoctrinated since childhood to believe that the ordained are ‘above’ the common folk.
Bishops often talk of “the dignity of every person.” But deep down, many of them are convinced that they really are better than the rest of us, which is why many of them almost compulsively blame others when clerics commit crimes.
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