Archdiocese of St. Louis
4445 Lindell
Saint Louis, MO 63108

June 27, 2005
Dear Archbishop Burke,
We have written you many times in the past year, encouraging you to protect innocent children and vulnerable adults. We have reminded you of the spirit of the Dallas Charter and the mandate to Protect God’s Children. We have encouraged you to reach out to those who have been so grievously harmed by members of the clergy, to help them heal and find justice. But today we write you out of fear, fear that you will be a party to allowing a known, dangerous sexual predator to go free.
As you know, sexual predators are rarely cured. They continue to rape and sodomize children throughout their lifetimes. The only way children are safe is if these criminals are behind bars. Medical research tells us that pedophilia is notoriously difficult to treat. Treatment is difficult at best because the practice of pedophilia produces great pleasure for the molester. Most clinicians agree that before treatment can be effective, pedophiles must accept responsibility for their actions and the damage they have caused. Even with treatment pedophilia cannot be “cured."
We appreciate your outreach to the parishes where Beine worked as a priest but in the last few weeks it has to come to our attention that he also worked at St. Mary Magdalen (on Kingshighway), St. Monica’s (Creve Coeur) and St. Mary’s (Bridgeton) when he was a deacon. We implore you to personally visit these parishes and actively seek out victims. Remind parishioners that they have both a moral and a civic duty to contact police if they have seen or suspected abuse. Please place notices in the diocesan newspaper and church bulletins urging victims to seek healing by reporting these crimes to police.
The Catholic Church has not lived up to its obligations to either the children or to Beine. It violated it’s obligation to the children by allowing Beine to continue to function as a priest even after he was known to molested and it failed Beine but not getting him proper treatment and allowing him to go back to a situation where he could molest again.
James Beine is a threat to children everywhere. We know of victims in their 40s and victims who are still children. Please do not allow this pattern to continue. Make the safety of children your top priority, do everything in your power to keep this man behind bars.
We look forward to your reply.

David Clohessy
National Director of SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Barbara Dorris
Victims Outreach Coordinator for SNAP
6245 Westminster Place
Saint Louis, MO 63130