SNAP_Press_Release

SNAP Press Release, December 11, 2011.

Victims want “outreach” about arrested priest

He admits viewing child porn in church rectory

Group worries about cleric’s unexplained “leave” in 2003

Bishop should visit each parish where he worked, victims say

SNAP urges top church officials to post names of all predator priests on website

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will urge Pittsburgh Catholic’s bishop to

--aggressively seek out anyone with knowledge or suspicions of child sex crimes by a just-arrested Pittsburgh-area priest,

--personally visit each church where he worked,

--explain why that cleric took a “personal leave” in 2003, and

--post on the diocese website the names and whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers and lay employees.

The victims will also urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes by this priest or other church employees - to come forward, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

WHEN
TODAY, Sunday, Dec. 11th, at - noon

WHERE
Outside the diocese chancery office, 111 Blvd. of the Allies (corner of Market St.) in Pittsburgh, PA Noon

WHO
Two-three individuals who are clergy abuse victims or supporters and who belong to a Chicago-based support group called SNAP, (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a St Louis woman who is a former Ohio Valley resident and is now the organization’s Midwest Associate Director.

VISUALS
The group will hold signs and childhood photos.

WHY
Yesterday, Fr. Bart Sorenson was arraigned on child porn charges after admitting to police that he’d viewed at least 100 sexual imagines of kids in the rectory of St. Anne’s Catholic parish in Churchill.

SNAP wants, Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik to work hard to find others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Sorenson. The group is also skeptical of Fr. Sorenson’s “personal leave of absence” in 2003, and wants Zubik to disclose whether that was connected with knowledge or suspicions of sexual misdeeds by Fr. Sorensen. (The diocese claims there have been no other “complaints” about Sorenson, but often, SNAP says, Catholic officials parse words and use deceptive language.)

According to the Post Gazette, Fr. Sorensen also worked as “chaplain at West Penn Hospital. From 1999 to 2003, he was pastor at St. Victor Church in West Deer.”

Also, for the sake of public safety, SNAP wants Zubik to post on his diocesan website the names, photos and whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. Roughly 30 US bishops have done this. It’s the least any bishop who wants to protect kids should do, SNAP feels.

The independent website BishopAccountability.org lists 31 Pittsburgh area Catholic clerics as having been accused of child sex crimes.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11344/1196092-100.stm

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_771448.html

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. It has been around for 22 years and has more than 9,000 members across the world. Despite the word "priest" in the title, SNAP helps people who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers.)

Contact:

Judy Block Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 314 974 5003, SNAPjudy@gmail.com

Fran Samber, SNAP Pittsburgh member, 717-514-9660 cell, samber13431@comcast.net

David Clohessy, SNAP Director, 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director 314 503 0003 cell

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