NEWS CONF WED 6/12- Abuse victims blast St. Paul archbishop

Abuse victims blast St. Paul archbishop

SNAP: ‘He’s hiding at least six predator priests’

Two of them are alive & could be around here, the group says

Church officials elsewhere say they’re ‘credibly accused’ abusers

Other bishops have already posted their names on Catholic websites

‘But Hebda’s hiding them,’ SNAP says ‘And who knows how many others?’

Activists will write the clerics’ names on the sidewalk using chalk

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will

• blast the Twin Cities Catholic archbishop for ‘hiding’ at least six ‘credibly accused’ child molesting priests, even though they have already been declared ‘credibly accused’ by bishops elsewhere and they’re named as abusers on other church websites, and

• strongly urge the archbishop to add the names of six alleged child molesting clerics to his website.

They will also

• use chalk to write the names of the credibly accused priests on the sidewalk, 

• beg Catholics to push top church officials to be ‘more open & honest’ about predators and 

• prod anyone who has ‘seen, suspected or suffered’ crimes by any Catholic employee or volunteer to ‘come forward to trusted sources of help, like friends, family, therapists, police, prosecutors or support groups – not church officials.’

WHEN

Wednesday, June 12 at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside St. Paul Cathedral, 239 Selby Ave. in St Paul

WHO

Four-five child sex abuse victims including a Missouri man who for 30 years headed a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) and a local man who’s the organization’s long-time Minnesota director

WHY

1) Using court filings, church records, bishops’ websites and mainstream media accounts, SNAP has discovered and is disclosing the names of six publicly and credibly accused predator priests who are or were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Archdiocese.

But they have attracted little or no media attention here and remain largely ‘under the radar.’ That’s because Twin Cities church officials refuse to disclose and post their names, even though each of the six have been declared ‘credibly accused’ abusers by church officials elsewhere and are on diocesan websites elsewhere.

(See more detail below)

These priests who are or were in Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese – again, already declared ‘credibly accused’ abusers by bishops in other dioceses and states – but are not on the archdiocesan ‘credibly accused’ list are: Fr. William Tanguay, Fr. Elwood “Woody” Bernas, Fr. James William Murphy, Fr. Casimir Plakut, Fr. Dennis M. Lally and Fr. Alphonsus P. Ferguson.

A detailed fact sheet about the men and their alleged crimes, including links to sources, is here:

https://www.snapnetwork.org/media_statements

Publicizing these names is important, SNAP says, because that helps protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. It’s also what all US bishops have repeatedly pledged to do time and time again over the past 20+ years, the group maintains.

“For decades, bishops exploited legal technicalities, fought hard against disclosure, intimidated witnesses and whistleblowers, repeatedly misled law enforcement and forced victims to sign gag orders,” said Frank Meuers of SNAP. “Had bishops acted responsibly and compassionately, many of these clerics would be behind bars or on state sex offender registries now. So posting their names now is the least bishops should do and what they’ve long promised to do.”

Across the US, roughly 160 bishops and dozens of Catholic religious orders now publicly post the names of some credibly accused’ child molesting clerics. But few - if any - of those lists are complete, SNAP charges, because church officials ‘split hairs, make excuses and remain secretive when it suits their needs.’

https://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/diocesan_and_order_lists.htm

2) In 2019, at a similar event in St. Paul, SNAP members ‘outed’ five credibly accused priests who are or were in the archdiocese but were NOT on the archdiocese’s ‘accused’ list (Fr. Neil Emon, Fr. Alphonsus Ferguson, Fr. J. Roger Lucey, Fr. Merle Fisher and Fr. Milton Eggerling).

Since then, three of them HAVE been added to the archdiocese’s list (Emon, Fisher and Eggerling).Fr. Ferguson and Fr. Lucey, however, have NOT yet been added.

BACKGROUND

https://www.twincities.com/2019/10/05/without-oversight-scores-of-accused-priests-commit-crimes/

The head of the archdiocese is Archbishop Bernard Hebda (hello@archspm.org, 651 291 4400). The archdiocese claims 188 parish churches in twelve counties.

The archdiocese’s official ‘credibly accused’ abusers list, with 119 names, is here:

https://safe-environment.archspm.org/accountability/clergy-disclosures/

Photos of some of the accused abusers are at BishopAccountability.org

CONTACT

David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Frank Meuers 952 334 5180