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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2010
SNAP CINCINNATI
issues the following statement on the appearance of retired Cincinnati
Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk at a mass this evening in Milwaukee celebrating
the renovation of the Catholic cathedral there:
The
Cincinnati Chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests - a self help group for those sexually abused by Catholic
priests and other religious authority figures) sees the appearance of retired
Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk along side fellow retired Milwaukee Archbishop
Rembert G. Weakland as an act of extreme poor taste by both Catholic
archdioceses.
Each of the two retired archbishops will lead separate
services Tuesday celebrating the recently completed renovation of the Cathedral
of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee. Each archbishop played a major role in
the clergy sex abuse scandal in his respective archdiocese while on active duty
as the top man in each city.
Pilarczyk, who retired last month after
more than 25 years as Cincinnati’s archbishop, was found guilty after pleading
no contest in 2002 to 5 misdemeanor counts of failure to report a crime. He went
on to shamefully hide behind Ohio’s woefully obsolete statutes of limitations as
hundreds of victims and survivors sought justice from him in the Ohio’s judicial
system, and was successful in keep these men and women who were abused as
children out of the courtroom. The $3 million settlement fund he did offer to
victims was tremendously one sided to the church, and offered only minimal
restitution to those who chose to subject themselves to the church’s strict
terms and conditions. This fund was only offered as part of the plea deal
Pilarczyk made with the Hamilton County prosecuting attorney to keep himself out
of jail.
Weakland retired in 2002 after public disclosures that he paid
$450,000 in hush money to a man with whom he had a sexual relationship. He also
infamously moved abusive priests from parish to parish during his tenure as
archbishop, keeping safe the secrets of the abusers, enabling them to re-offend
and protecting them from prosecution. In a Milwaukee Catholic newspaper column,
Weakland even suggested that some victims of the abusive priests were themselves
to blame for the abuse they suffered (he wrote “Some of them can be sexually
very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise.”) This suggestion is
outrageous, and shows just how out of touch with reality Weakland is. This
notion would be laughable if it were not so hurtful.
Neither of these
retired archbishops should be given a public pulpit. Neither
should be celebrated as men of good deeds. Both shamefully wrecked the
lives of hundreds of children, and should be regarded as disgraced shepherds.
These two men placed their own interests over the safety of children, and then
stood in the way of these same children who as adults sought much deserved
justice. Now that both are retired, the Roman Catholic Archdioceses of Milwaukee
and Cincinnati should keep them out of the limelight, because giving these men
the public appearance of having been or still being good shepherds is the same
kind of falsehood that enabled the very abuse to occur during their tenures as
archbishops. If the Catholic church wants to promote healing and justice, their
actions should speak louder than words. The actions they take should include
keeping these two disgraced archbishops out of the public eye, and to refrain
from rubbing salt in still fresh wounds.
CONTACT
Individual
requests for media interviews can be made through:
Daniel Frondorf,
Chapter Leader, SNAP Cincinnati 513-706-7403 cell dandorf@fuse.net
Peter Isely, SNAP
Midwest Regional Director 414-429-7259 cell peterisely@yahoo.com
David
Clohessy, National Director, SNAP 314-566-9790
On the web www.SNAPnetwork.org
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