MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
MN archbishop will comment on his crisis today; SNAP responds
MN – What to look for today from Archbishop Nienstedt
MN archbishop’s answer: “I’ll hire more lawyers”
For immediate release: Thursday October
Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com
We agree with Nienstedt: he and his staff can “do better.” But they don’t.
Instead they posture. And they perpetuate the fallacy that child abuse is the root of this inexcusable horror.
It’s not.
Priests that sexually assault adults and kids are NOT the root of this crisis. All kinds of trusted adults sexually violate the vulnerable. (And it’s pretty hard to stop them, at least before the first offense.)
The cover up of those crimes that is the root of this crisis. (That’s what enables the second and 22nd offense. And that’s what enrages Catholics, citizens and victims – knowing that prompt, honest and responsible moves by Nienstedt and his staff would have prevented others from being hurt by at least some of the 34 publicly accused abusive Twin Cities clerics.)
And the cover up is what Nienstedt refuses to mention today. Conveniently, he focuses on just how bad those awful predator priests are, cleverly diverting attention from his actions that ignore, minimize, conceal and enable those predator priests to commit their heinous crimes.
It’s deliberate deception. It’s a carefully-devised public relations calculation designed to shift blame and attention to those who can’t control themselves (the predators) and attention away from those who won’t control them (their peers and supervisors, the Nienstedts, McDonoughs, Bairds, et al.)
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