Abuse Victims' Advocate Says Survivors Feel Snubbed by U.S. Catholic Bishops
by Rusty Pugh and Jenni Parker
June 15, 2004
(AgapePress) - A spokeswoman for a group representing people who were abused by members of the Catholic clergy says the abuse victims have been neglected by the church.Some 275 members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have departed from Denver, Colorado, even as U.S. Catholic bishops are gathering there for a closed-door retreat.
Barbara Blaine, the president of SNAP, told Associated Press the survivors feel neglected and forgotten by the church officials, who have declined to meet with them. "The bishops are walking over and ignoring the needs of the wounded victims and our family members while they tend to their efforts to worry about prevention and analysis and develop an understanding as to why all this happened," she says.
"We believe their efforts are important and need to be accomplished," Blaine adds, "but they've got individuals who are bleeding and need their immediate attention."
The agenda of the bishops' meeting includes a progress report on reforms that were drafted in Dallas two years ago after the Catholic clergy abuse scandal became public. A leading U.S. theologian, Cardinal Avery Dulles, has reported that some priests accused of abuse have been denied due process and the opportunity for redemption.
But Blaine says SNAP members feel the victims of abuse should be the bishops' first priority. "We have nothing to feel guilty or ashamed about," she says. She notes that the alleged abuse was not the victims' fault, but rather, was "the fault of the priests and the bishops who put them in positions of power and authority over us without warning our parents."
SNAP's healing model is based on the belief that both survivors and the institution that hurt them must be healed. Through self-help, education, and prevention, the survivors' network focuses on helping individual victims as well as changing the church that allowed the abuse to happen.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was joined by another group, Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), in calling on the U.S. Catholic bishops to open up their discussions of sexual abuse to public scrutiny and participation. Although their request was turned down, the Survivors Network will persist in asking bishops to recommit to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that they passed in Dallas in 2002, and to publicly challenge the clerics to live up to the pledges they made at that time.
In a recent press release, Blaine observed: "Many bishops keep trying to assure us there's no 'backtracking' or retreat from their earlier promises. If that's so, they should welcome public input and participation in their deliberations on the most crucial issue facing the American church today."
