KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on June 12, 2012
Clergy sex abuse victims are urging America’s Catholic bishops to denounce Owensboro church officials for keeping quiet for 18 years about an allegation against a priest who now faces criminal child sex abuse charges.
At a sidewalk news conference today in Atlanta, where all US bishops are meeting, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are expressing concern about Fr. Louis Francis Piskula of the Owensboro diocese. Last week, Piskula was arrested and charged with sodomy and child sexual abuse.
Local church officials essentially admitted that he was accused of similar wrongdoing in 1994 and secretly suspended from active ministry in 2002.
“As best we can tell, neither Owensboro Bishop William Medley, his predecessor Bishop John McRaith, nor any other current or former diocesan staffer ever disclosed this crucial fact: that a credibly accused child molesting cleric was living among unsuspecting Kentucky families,” said David Clohessy, SNAP Director.
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