NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, May 2, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
Today, a Syracuse man will likely plead guilty in a child pornography case. Regardless of what happens in court, however, Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham has a moral and civic duty to aggressively seek out others who may have suspicions or knowledge of his crimes and beg them to call law enforcement.
Jason Kopp of Liverpool, along with an aide at All Saints elementary school and day care center, helped created child sexual images. The FBI found naked photos of an All Saints child in a school bathroom at the school, according to Syracuse.com. Kopp’s alleged co-conspirator in these crimes was Emily Oberst, who was an aide at the school.
For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope Kopp gets a long as possible. And we hope that Syracuse Catholic officials, especially Bishop Cunningham, will spread this news and use church bulletins, pulpit announcements, and church websites to aggressively seek out others who he may have hurt. We believe that’s their moral and civic duty.
Bishop Cunningham has a troubling track record in abuse and cover up cases:
No matter what courts or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.