WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, March 24, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
Today, we are disclosing – for the first time in the Seattle area, we believe – the names of three credibly accused predator priests who worked in this archdiocese.
One was deemed “unsuitable for the priesthood” by a church abuse panel. A second admits fathering four kids, visiting prostitutes and exploiting 7 Alaskan village women. A third was “outed” by church officials and was transferred often throughout five states.
Two of them still live in Washington (Seattle & Spokane) and none have been defrocked.
We’re most worried about Fr. Harold Francis Quigg. A decade ago, a church panel deemed him “unsuitable for the priesthood” because of credible allegations of his “egregious” sexual abuse of a then-17 year old in Washington. But for a decade, Seattle archdiocesan officials kept the accusations against Fr. Quigg hidden from the public and let him stay among unsuspecting parishioners.
It’s very possible that Fr. Quigg molested another child last night, last month, or last year, enabled by the callous secrecy of Archbishop Peter Sartain and his top aides. (We all know most victims speak up decades after they’re assaulted.) How will the archbishop and his top aides explain their irresponsible actions to their flock if this has happened?
A decade is a long time to give a predator to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and keep molesting.
Seattle church officials rationalize this reckless and callous and deceitful behavior in a curiously legalistic, hair-splitting way. They claim that the time of Fr. Quigg’s offenses, church rules said that 16 year olds were considered adults. (The ‘age of consent’ has since been raised to age 18.)
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