SNAP has studied the matter:
—256 of the Chicago archdiocese’s roughly 400 parishes have, at one time, had an accused pedophile priest working there,
– 30 parishes had two or more alleged predator priests assigned to them at one time, and
– a disproportionate percentage of parishes in lower income neighborhoods had accused priests working at hem.
The leaders:
Two parishes have had five accused priests [each] (St. Leonard in Berwyn and St. Aloysius in Chicago). Six have had four accused priests [each] (Holy Innocents in Chicago, St. Christina in Chicago, St. Eulalia in Maywood, St. John Vianney in Northlake, St. Thomas of Villanova in Palatine, and Resurrection Life Center in Chicago).
Maybe a new group? Priests who Stood by Unknowing or Uncertain (PSUU)? In silence, that is. Many of them feeling not so good at this point, I bet.
Comments
The Archdiocese is 158 years old, there are bound to be a certain amount of problems over the years.
I have a hard time judging whether the numbers that SNAP comes up with are high or low, based on accusation or evidence, or the imagination of a trial lawyer.
When they come up with “lower income” parishes being hit worse, it reminds me of the parody headline “World to End Tomorrow. Poor and Women to be Hit Hardest.”…aping the Left Wing bias that infiltrates so much of the media.
The lower-income part: The predator finds less social organization, more fatherless boys in such neighborhoods. So if he’s a really bad guy, he likes those places. If he’s prone to temptation in this area, he has fewer disincentives. This does not verify SNAP’s claim, but it lends it credibility, or at least plausibility.
I attended Catholic schools -grammar, secondary, collge and post grad. I was an altar boy and a choir boy. For nearly four of my high school years I attended St. Augustine ( Augustinian) Minor Seminary and slept in barracks-like dorm with forty guys.
Not once -ever did I hear, much less experince, a case where a priest or brother in any way shape or form abuse or make a sexual advance on any boy.
As a teacher, I watched as Father Ken Yarno called the Kankakee County Sheriff the moment that he learned of a case of child abuse from three of us teachers and the accused and guilty as hell was cuffed and perp walked in fron of reporters – that priest was from Father Yarno’s own order. Father Yarno is man and a half.
I experienced SNAP when I taught at La Lumiere School at a workshop and found their founder and leader to be a goof – bitter ( perhaps, earned) and singularly uninformed. I suspected that she was being scripted – by lawyers -lo and hehold she was and is – Jeffery Anderosn etal.
Clergy Abuse is larger than life and reality.
If the day comes when Catholics agree that abortion is wonderful and sodomy a Civil Right, Clergy Abuse will begin to fade away.