ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
February 5, 2019
Survivors and advocates push Steubenville Diocese on abuse
They want expanded list of ‘credibly accused’ clerics
SNAP: the names of 5 men publicly accused of child sexual abuse missing
Each of them spent time in Steubenville area
A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is prodding the Steubenville Diocese to add five names to its list of 16 ‘credibly accused’ childmolesting clerics.
Each of the clerics has been publicly accused elsewhere, but have ties to the Ohio diocese, according to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
“It’s an absolute fact that these potentially dangerous men spent time in the Steubenville area,” said Judy Jones, SNAP Volunteer Midwest Leader. “They may have already hurt Steubenville kids, might live nearby now or might come back to visit former parishioners. Parents, parishioners and the public need to be warned about them.”
“We know that are survivors who are suffering in silence and shame in the Steubenville area, and adding these names are one way that the Stuebenville Diocese can help those survivors,” said Zach Hiner, SNAP’s Executive Director. “When they sees the name of their abuser on the list, they will know that they’re not the only one, that it wasn’t their fault, and will begin to heal. ”
“To the child being raped, it makes no difference who signs a pedophile priest’s paycheck or who ordained him or who transferred him,” concluded Jones. “Adding these names to the list helps survivors who may be suffering alone and in silence, as well as preventing further abuse.”
The publicly accused clerics SNAP says were left off that list are:
— Deacon Rosendo F. “Ross” Decal, a Cuba native and “renaissance man” who worked in the Pittsburgh Diocese and was charged with “child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of communications” in April of 2018. In 1960s and ’70s Deacon Decal taught at Steubenville Catholic Central High.
— Fr Carl Anthony Peltz, a Steubenville priest who also worked as a Navy chaplain from 1983-1990 and who was later “incardinated” and worked in theKalamazoo Diocese. In 1985 in Iceland, Fr. Peltz allegedly forced a 12 year old boy to drink whiskey and raped him. A civil suit filed in 1991 in federal court charged that Steubenville Church officials should have known the priest had a drinking problem, yet it certified him as fit for service. That case settled for $25,000 in 1993. Fr. Peltz died in 2015.
— Fr John Patrick Bertolucci, an Albany NY, priest who worked at Steubenville University for at least nine years, from 1979-1988. The priest admitted sexually abusing teenagers in the 1970s. Church officials permanently removed his facilities in 2002. A lawsuit that same year alleged that Fr. Bertolucci told the parents of the alleged victim that “I was very proud of your son the way he repeatedly fought off my sexual advances most of the time.”
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