www.SNAPnetwork.org
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
[Click on the BLUE headings/titles below to open the page with the information]
Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle
*************Transcripts
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
Click "Royal" for Home PageVictoria Parliament's "Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations"
Click "Inquiry" to view submissionsShoebridge Bill: Justice for Victims
Click "Justice" To get informationSNAP Legal Action
For all things related to theSNAP and Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit filed against
the Pope and four Vatican officers
for violations of human rights
[ CLICK HERE ]
Video: Moves to Put the Pope in Court
Fighting for the Future (UN filing on February 28, 2013)
We invite clergy abuse victims, family members of victims, and supporters of victims to be involved and to join SNAP. Click Here To ...
Join SNAP
Joining SNAP is free and completely confidential. We never sell nor share our membership list with anyone.We are also looking for survivors to start SNAP chapters. Chapter leaders must be able to conduct a monthly self-help support group meeting in their local area and promote the missions of SNAP.
Contact Mark Fabbro, Nicky Davis,
Barbara Dorris, or Steven Spaner
for details.
FEELING DESPONDENT?
If you or anyone you know has suffered abuse, call Lifeline.
TELE: 131 114
Contact Information &
Meeting Announcements
Where To Report Your Abuse
Victims' Stories (listen and read)
Public Awareness Presentations
and Radio Interviews
Information and Support
Other Australian organisations concerned with child abuse prevention.
PUBLICLY ACCUSED CLERGY
Partial List
PM Julia Gillard's full statement on the child sex abuse royal commission (with Q n A)
[click HERE for Transcript]
OPINION: Sex abuse survivors want to be believed
By Bob OToole and Lindsay GardinerApril 2, 2013
Click "OPINION" to read Article
Cops and Catholicism: the cultural connection between police and the church
Download audio
ABC Radio - Andrew WestSNAP
AUSTRALIA
HEADLINES and NEWS ARCHIVES
[Click on the BLUE heading above forhealines and news archives]
[Click on the BLUE story titles below to open the recent stories]
Prosecution not in 'public interest' (with video)
ABC-Lateline May 22, 2013The NSW DPP says the prosecution of a school principal who sacked a teacher for abusing students but didn't inform police, would not be in the public interest. In the 1970s Brother Anthony Whelan was principal of St Patrick's College at Sutherland in Sydney. He sacked a teacher for abusing a series of boys at the school, but he did not inform the police. The victims say that if the police had been informed, the teacher may have been prevented from abusing other children. The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions says that prosecuting the former principal is not in the public interest. But abuse survivors say that justice has not been done. John Stewart reports. ...
'Arbitrary and brutal' NSW compensation changes spark UN complaint
A Patty and H Alexander May 21, 2013A coalition of 30 legal, community, health and women's organisations have complained to the United Nations about planned changes to the NSW victims' compensation scheme on the grounds they will particularly discriminate against women. ... The complaint says the government bill runs counter to the UN's recommendations on reparation for women who have been subjected to violence. ...
Hart
admits 'awful blight'
Barney Zwartz
Paedophile priests in
Church
must confess it all (Editorial)
Herald
WHEN Archbishop Denis Hart replied "better late than never" after
being asked why the Catholic Church had taken 18 years to defrock a
paedophile
priest, there was what might be called a disbelieving silence. A
moment's reflection might have allowed Archbishop Hart to reconsider
what
was at least offensive and at worst suggested his own attitude to child
sex
abuse might need to change. ...
Archbishop
admits cover-up over child sexual abuse
D Fogarty & G Gannon
Church
was too keen to look after herself: Denis Hart
Stuart Rintoul
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart appears before Facing the Truth sex abuse inquiry [with video]
M
Ainsworth, A Smethurst
THE
CATHOLIC Church has been more interested in protecting its reputation and
fortune than caring for the victims of child sex abuse, Melbourne Archbishop
Denis Hart has admitted. ... "The church was too keen to look after herself and her good name, and
not keen enough to address the terrible anguish of the victims,"
Archbishop Hart said. ...
Melbourne
Catholic Archbishop admits 'awful blight on church' [with video]
ABC News 7.30
May 20, 2013
Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has told
Catholic Church cover-up [with video]
ABC - Lateline
The Archibishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, has admitted the church covered up
sexual abuse claims against priests and has been slow to act on abuse claims.
Culture
of secrecy and cover-up, Hart admits [with-video]
The Age
Henrietta Cook
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says the Catholic church has been slow to
act on child abuse and admits there has been a culture of "secrecy and
cover-up". Archbishop Hart told a packed gallery at the parliamentary inquiry into
child abuse by churches that taking 18 years to act on ejecting a convicted paedophile
priest was "better late than never". ...
Church
'treated' pedophile priests
Dan POLICE investigating an alleged cover-up of child abuse committed by Catholic priests discussed an in-house treatment centre run by the church ... Encompass Australasia program at centres in Sydney and Melbourne before it was wound down in 2010.
The
boy who manned up to the church
Michel O'Sullivan
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend … By a
campfire at a school retreat, a 10-year-old boy sings Fire and Rain,
James Taylor's sad and sweet ballad of the times. It is 1972. The boy
is John
Saunders, the youngest of nine children from a Catholic family that
loves to
sing. Listening are schoolmates from Marist Brothers Primary, Mosman,
and a lay
teacher in whom John has found a friend, a man he has come to love and
trust. ...
Archbishop's
intervention led to fall of Bishop
Janet Fife-Yeomans
May 20, 2013
THE country's top Anglican, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, personally
intervened days before the shock resignation of the Grafton bishop over
his
mishandling of abuse claims at a notorious children's home. In an
indication of how seriously churches are taking the Royal Commission
into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Aspinall
last
week sent the commission an internal church review of the scandal. ...
NSW
legal aid refuses to fund sex abuse claims
ABC News
May 19,
2013
'If you tell, you go to hell'
During Pope Benedict's visit to Britain in the north of England(16 September 2010) Channel 4 News Nick Martin meets three clerical sex abuse victims who tell him their harrowing stories.
Welcome to SNAPAustralia.org
( Created by and for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy )
1st Ever SNAP World Conference,
Dublin, Ireland (April 26, 27 and 28, 2013)
For listing of presenters and their presentations Click Here
This site is all about the TRUTH
...and there is plenty of it, so
KEEP ON SCROLLING DOWN.
We try very hard to always update and post items on this web site, with complete integrity.
We realize it takes a lot of courage to reach out for help, and we thank you for visiting our site. We also realize this trauma reaches family members and those who are concerned and frustrated about the sex abuse crisis within the religious community.
This web site is a place to find information about our SNAP support meetings in your local area, plus we are constantly updating news stories and information about clergy who have been publicly accused of sex abuse within the Australian dioceses. Our goal is survivor support, public education, and protection of kids.
We also plan to post survivor video stories. Sometimes it helps to listen to these stories to better understand the trauma and life pain of those who have been harmed by clergy and those who are related to these survivors: family and friends.
We post on this site many links to other self help groups and information to support victims. SNAP leaders' email addresses and phone numbers are posted for you when you need direct help and support, please feel free to contact any of these compassionate people who care about survivors. SNAP leaders know that the principle wish of every survivor is healing and the desire to see that their experiences never happen to another child, young person, or vulnerable adult.
You, who are survivors of sex abuse did NOT deserve this, did NOT ask for this to happen to you, and it was NOT your fault. There is healing when you are able to speak up and get this burden off your shoulders, and free from your heart. ... give it to the universe to carry for a while.... Just maybe, your life will be much more at peace.
Our ultimate goal is to open up the secrets, stop the silence, support those who have already been harmed, and thereby protect children.
Thank you for making the decision to visit our SNAPAustralia.org web site.
Call Of Duty
ABC Australian Story April 29, 2013The video story about Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox; a man who was only doing his job.
Click "Call" for story and video
Unholy Silence
(ABC 4 Corners video)
Geoff Thompson July 2, 2012Click "Unholy" for story and video
John Wojnowski
Haunted by his past, he has stood outside the Washington, DC Vatican embassy nearly every day for 15 years. His lonely vigil has made him a hero to victims of sexual abuse. Give John some applause for his dedicated journey for you, me, him and thousands of others. The comment section on John's page is waiting for your appreciation, just click on John's name above.WHAT THE POPE KNEW
BBC Panorama Report
14 Septemeber 2010
WHAT THE POPE KNEW
The CNN Report
25 September 2010
The Oprah Show