SNAP DISGRACES ITSELF AGAIN
Instead of looking at the positive reforms made by the U.S. bishops
over the last decade, the professional victims’ lobby SNAP is rehashing its
age-old claim that there is an ongoing abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.
Never mind that in the last three years, an average of seven new credible accusations
were made against over 40,000 priests in this country. Indeed, 99.98% of
Catholic priests did not have a credible accusation made against them last
year.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice issued its Causes
and Context study last year that found the abuse scandal ran from the mid-60s
to the mid-80s, peaking in the 70s. After it was published, I issued a report
analyzing the study [click here]. Since the end of the scandal, the Church has
reformed its policies and curbed the problem, thus becoming a model of how to
protect children.
Don’t let SNAP’s ad fool you. While they purport to be
concerned with the safety of children, their real agenda is to sunder the
Catholic Church. Last year its annual conference turned into a Church-bashing
event. How do we know this? We had trusted sources attend and fill us in on the
rhetoric [click here to see our report].
Earlier this year, SNAP’s director David Clohessy, was
deposed regarding his role in priest abuse cases and what was disclosed was
truly revealing [click here to see our report]. SNAP, the bastion of child
protection, contributed $593 in 2007 to “survivor support,” yet spent $92,000
the following year on travel. Clohessy even admitted to giving false statements
to the press—so why would anyone believe what he is bandying about in today’s
Times?
Where today’s scandal truly lies—and one that SNAP is partly responsible for—is the false accusations made against many priests. SNAP’s attempt to resurrect itself by cashing in on old problems will fail. Indeed, they have disgraced themselves again.