Statement by SNAP President Barbara Blaine
We're taking this historic step today for
one very simple reason: to protect innocent children and vulnerable adults.
Across the globe, we believe hundreds of boys and girls are being sexually
violated right now by Catholic priests, nuns, bishops, and seminarians. That
widespread violence is being systematically concealed, as it has been for
decades, by top officials of a callous, secretive, rigid, and powerful global
hierarchy.
We know it may be tough for some to
essentially equate clergy sex crimes and cover ups with other forms of violence
that are addressed by the ICC, but violence, rape and torture take many forms.
They can be done openly or covertly, explicitly ordered or subtly enabled. They
can happen during peace or war, in the town square or behind closed doors, by
officials in public or private institutions. But it's wrong to punish more
obvious violence against thousands while ignoring less obvious violence against
thousands.
Statement by SNAP Director David Clohessy
We're here to protect the vulnerable. We do
that by exposing wrongdoers, uncovering secrets, and deterring future cover ups
and sexual violence by powerful clergy. And we protect the vulnerable when we
hold responsible those who enable hundreds or thousands of serial predators to
keep inflicting devastating violence on innocent kids and adults.
We're concerned first about those who ARE
being hurt. But we're also concerned about those who are suffering now because
of childhood victimization by clergy. We believe this effort will give hope,
courage and opportunity to victims across the world, most of whom will never
have a chance to warn others about his or her perpetrator and stop that predator
from molesting others.
We're no smarter than survivors anywhere
else, but we have been speaking up and working for prevention, justice, healing
and truth-telling for a long time. We have no corner on wisdom. We do, however,
have considerable experience. And we've seen, time and time again, what does
NOT protect kids or bring change: victims staying silent, families trusting
bishops, police deferring to bishops, and people assuming that just exposing
wrongdoing will stop wrongdoing, or just replacing older bishops with newer
bishops will cause change, or that just paying financial settlements alone will
bring reform. They won't.
Police, prosecutors and governmental
authorities must step up if kids are to be safer in the church.
Regarding our prospects of success here;
Some may have trouble imagining top Catholic
officials facing criminal charges. But we in SNAP had trouble, for years,
imagining just how widespread this violence is and how far this cover up truly
goes.
We had trouble imagining, just two years
ago, that in just a few months' time, thousands and thousands of clergy sex
victims in
Almost everyone we spoke with for almost 15
years (1988-2002) had trouble with (and sometimes even laughed at) the notion
of a nationwide
In 2002, when we started pushing US bishops
to post names of credibly accused child molesting clerics on their websites,
again, we were sometimes laughed at. Almost everyone had trouble imagining this
happening.
In 2002, when we started pushing a civil
window bill in California, most had trouble imagining it passing and being
upheld by the courts.
But all these have come to pass. There is a
Statement by SNAP Outreach Director Barbara
Dorris of
For centuries, Catholic clerics have quietly
committed horrific violence against vulnerable children and adults. They still
do. And for centuries, Catholic bishops have quietly hidden and enabled this
violence. They still do.
Somehow, this systematic rape, sodomy,
violence and cover up must be addressed. Who better than the International
Criminal Court?
Violence can be caused when generals clearly
order soldiers to use weaponry to inflict pain on adults in plain view during
wartime. It can also be caused when officials secretly enable employees to use
their bodies to inflict pain on youngsters out of public sight during
peacetime. Both types of violence are heinous and must be addressed. When
either are widespread and systematic and cross national boundaries, high level
secular authorities must act.
Ask yourself this: Outside of the
It's hard to believe, but it's true - almost
no Catholic employee anywhere who endangers kids, conceals crimes, and helps
predators, experiences even the slightest negative consequences for such
immoral, reckless, and callous actions.
So secular authorities must act.
In a handful of Western nations, hundreds of
brave victims have spoken up and helped inspire an avalanche of criticism of
bishops. The result: tepid official church policy changes on paper that rarely
lead to real behavior change. And in the majority of nations, there's not even
this tiny step forward.
Changes within the church hierarchy are
begrudging, belated and ineffective, so secular authorities must act. And
individual police agencies and prosecutors in cities and counties and even
countries across the globe just can't impact the largest and oldest - and
perhaps the most powerful - enterprise on the planet.
So secular authorities must act.
Pope Benedict has spoken more often and more
clearly about clergy sex crimes than his predecessor did. A few times, he's met
with a few victims. Has this lead to any clear reform? No.
So secular authorities must act.
Statement by New York City SNAP director
Mary Caplan
In very few countries, very few clergy sex
abuse victims can ever prosecute their perpetrators and thus break the cycle of
violence by keeping a predator away from children. And in virtually no country
can a clergy sex abuse victim ever hope to prosecute the bishop who shields or
shielded their perpetrator - no matter how frequent or damaging his or her
crimes may be.
That just has to change. We hope this initiative will help bring that change.