SNAP Urges Catholics To “Stop Giving” Until “Persecution of Victims Stops”

One Victim Is A Current NJ Priest Who Was Molested As A Boy By A Priest

All 3 Men Travel Here To Support Chicago Men Assaulted by Chicago Priest

That Twice-Accused & Permanently Suspended Cleric is Suing His Accusers

WHAT:
At a news conference, three men who were sexually abused as boys, and later sued by the Catholic priests who molested them, will speak and

• blast Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George for letting a Burbank pedophile priest sue his accusers, and
• describe their own unusual and traumatic experiences of having been sexually assaulted as kids by priests and later sued as adults for slander by those same priests.

Also, SNAP leaders and some victims will urge local Catholics to stop giving to the archdiocese until George stops the priest’s lawsuit and forbids other church employees from using similar “hardball tactics.”

WHEN:
Monday, Dec. 11, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Inside the SNAP office, 700 North Green in Chicago

WHO:
Clergy molestation victims from New Jersey, Missouri & Oklahoma (one of whom is a priest) who were sued by the priests who assaulted them, along with a few members of a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY:
Early last month, archdiocesan officials announced that their review panel found child sex allegations against Fr. Robert Stepek were credible and that he would not be returned to ministry at St. Albert the Great parish in Burbank. He is accused of molesting two boys in the 1980s.

Late last month, Stepek filed a slander lawsuit against the two men who are accusing him of childhood sexual abuse. About a dozen accused US pedophile priests have filed similar suits.

This event is the first time three victims of these slander lawsuits have come together to denounce them and Cardinal George for permitting this intimidating move. One of the victims is a currently active New Jersey parish priest (Fr. John Bambrick) whose perpetrator (Fr. Anthony Eremito) took him to canonical court.
The other two were sued in civil court by their perpetrators.

None of the litigious abusive priests were successful in winning their lawsuits against their victims, although two of the priests are still in active parish ministry.

SNAP believes that Stepek is simply trying to intimidate other witnesses and victims from coming forward. They believe that the Cardinal should discipline Stepek for what they consider a “hardball legal tactic that is unbecoming of an alleged spiritual figure.” Just because a priest has a LEGAL right to sue others, he doesn’t have a MORAL right to do so, SNAP feels.

Vatican officials will determine whether Stepek should be defrocked. SNAP says at a bare minimum, Stepek should wait until that ruling takes place before even considering suing his accusers.

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_310194759.html
http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/120851.php?contentType=4&contentId=236190

CONTACT:
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP President & Founder 312 399 4747
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688