Camden Predator Priest Dies

SNAP
September 27, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/nj_camden_predator_priest_dies

Accused serial predator Fr. Joseph Shannon of Camden has passed away in a Missouri church facility that houses child molesting clerics. We are grateful that he will never again be able to hurt any more kids.

We hope every Camden Catholic employee – from the bishop to the bookkeeper – will reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Shannon’s crimes. And we hope that everyone with information or suspicions about those crimes will call law enforcement. Though Fr. Shannon cannot be prosecuted, we suspect and hope that at least one of the Catholic staffers who ignored, concealed and enabled his crimes might still be brought to justice.

Fr. Shannon had lived for 20 years at the Vianney Renewal Center, one of several St. Louis area Catholic facilities that house child molesting clerics from across the US and Canada. We worry about these centers at which child molesting clerics are "overseen" by other clerics. Catholic officials should send these dangerous men to independent, professionally run facilities far away from families and make their whereabouts and histories publicly known.