PENNSYLVANIA
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)
Last Friday, a serial predator priest – who worked in Philadelphia and abused kids in Oklahoma – was sentenced to 20-40 more years behind bars for more child sex crimes he committed in Michigan. For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope he stays behind bars for as long as possible. And we hope that Philadelphia Catholic officials will spread this news and use church bulletins, pulpit announcements, and church websites to aggressively seek out others who he may have hurt.
[WILX]
We’re grateful that Fr. James Francis Rapp was charged again, pled guilty to more child sex crimes.
Because of his crimes in Oklahoma, Fr. Rapp is already in prison. So it would have been easy for law enforcement to look the other way when more victims surfaced.
But Michigan’s attorney general filed more child sex charges against him for molesting kids at a Catholic high school in Jackson in the 1980s.
Once a child molester is convicted, many people who could be helpful get complacent. They assume his sentence will stand, his appeals will fail, and he’ll be kept away from kids for many years. But often, child molesters – especially clerics – get top notch defense lawyers, exploit legal technicalities, and escape with little or no jail time. Then, when other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers find this out, it’s too late for them to really make a difference.
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