USA - SNAP - Clergy Abuse Victims Want UN to Investigate Vatican

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For Immediate Release:
Monday, April 14, 2008

For More Information:
David Clohessy, SNAP National Director, 314 566 9790
Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, 312 399 4747
Peter Isely, SNAP Mid-west Director, 414 429 7259

Clergy abuse victims want UN to investigate Vatican

Pope violates international charter on children, they say

At least twice, Holy See has failed to submit required reports

Pontiff's one report ignored church's own clergy sex crimes & cover ups, SNAP says

Thousands of predator clergy pose current threat to children worldwide, group believes

What

Ata news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will call on the UnitedNations to launch a investigation into the role of Pope Benedict andVatican officials in the widespread cover-up of sex crimes againstchildren. Victims also want the U.N. to take action for the Pope'srefusal to submit required reports as a signatory of the U.N. Charteron the Protection of the Rights of Children.

When

Monday, April 14, 1:30

Where

InNew York City, Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, One United Nations Plaza,44th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenue) (The Governor's Room, 2ndfloor)

Who

Severalclergy sex abuse victims and their supporters, including a Chicagowoman who heads a self-help support group called SNAP, the SurvivorsNetwork of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org).

Why

OnFriday, April 18, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to speak before theUnited Nations yet the Vatican continues to violate a major UN Charteron the Protection of the Rights of Children, of which the Vatican is asignatory.

The widespread sexual abuseof children and the cover up of child sex crimes by church officialsposes a major global human rights threat to children. In the U.S.alone, nearly 6,000 sex offender clergy have been acknowledged bychurch officials to have sexually assaulted children. If this numberholds worldwide, there are likely 20,000 sex offender clerics aroundthe globe.

In a letter being sent toUN officials today, leaders of SNAP are calling on the United Nationsto launch a full-scale, global investigation into the commission andcover up of sex crimes against children by Catholic clergy, bishops andchurch officials around the world.

Victimsare concerned that Pope Benedict, who will undoubtedly chastise nationsthis week for human rights violations, is administering a world wideinstitution in which human rights violations against children are anhistoric, ongoing and daily occurrence.

Underhis leadership in the Vatican for the last 27 years - as Pope andformerly as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith -thousands of predator priests have raped, sodomized and sexuallybrutalized thousands of children.

Countlesschurch officials who kept silent about the crimes - or activelyconcealed them – have neither lost their jobs or faced reprimand by thePope.

National and internationalcriminal authorities have had little, if any, cooperation from churchofficials in stemming the tide of child sex crimes by clerics, or havebeen notified when church officials transfer known pedophiles acrossinternational boundaries.

Contact:

David Clohessy, SNAP National Director, 314 566 9790
Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, 312 399 4747
Peter Isely, SNAP Mid-west Director, 414 429 7259

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