Nun Sex Abuse Victims To Hold 12-Hour Overnight Denver Fast & Vigil
Received by email from SNAP Headquarters, 8.1.2008.
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Nun Sex Abuse Victims To Hold 12 Hour Overnight Outdoor Fast & Vigil
They Bring Their Concerns to National Nuns Meeting In Denver
Group Seeks Meeting With Top Catholic Women Church Officials
SNAP Knows Hundreds of Kids Have Been Molested by Sisters
“Help Us Protect the Vulnerable and Heal the Wounded,” Group Tells Nuns
Such Victims Are The “Next Wave” In Abuse Scandal, Self Help Organization Predicts
What:
Outside the largest annual meeting of Catholic nuns in the country, victims of sexual abuse by sisters or priests will:
- announce they’re doing a ’sun down to sun up’ fast and vigil tonight,
- discuss reforms they seek to prevent future nun sex abuse; and
- urge any one who saw, suspected or suffered sex crimes by nuns and other Catholic officials to come forward, get help and call secular, not church, authorities.
When:
TODAY, Friday, Aug. 1, 2:30 p.m.
Where:
Outside the Sheraton Denver, 1550 Court Place, Denver, CO 80202
(866) 716-8134), where hundreds of Catholic nuns are meeting
Who:
Four-six men and women who were molested by nuns and are leaders of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including one who was sexually assaulted by a nun in Colorado
Details:
Despite the considerable public attention on sex crimes by priests and cover ups by bishops, victims know that numerous child sexual abuse cases by nuns remains largely hidden. It is even more difficult, SNAP leaders feel, for anyone sexually victimized by nuns to come forward.
Still, the group is hearing from more and more such victims and predicts this will continue.
In 2004, officials with the nuns’ group met once with a small group of SNAP leaders but rejected the victims’ suggestions for prevention and healing (see below). As Pope Benedict XVI said to the American Bishops on April 16, 2008, “We will do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen in the future…It is your God given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.” The group is asking the LCWR to follow the Pope’s exhortation.
SNAP Requests to (the Leadership Conference of Women Religious) (LCWR):
– let SNAP put a link on the LCWR webpage
– ask member orders of the LCWR to do the same;
– begin fostering a trusting relationship by inviting SNAP members who are victims of sexual abuse by women religious to speak to LCWR member communities at national and regional LCWR conferences
– provide SNAP with a list of member orders including addresses and contact person names should a survivor of sister or nun sexual abuse wish to find healing and comfort from an order
– conduct a national review board for sexual abuse by women religious to ensure this abuse comes to an end and so those who were sexually abused by women religious can begin their journeys of healing.
The LCWR is the nation’s main association of congregations of Catholic nuns. It has roughly 1,000 members and represents about 95% of the 75,000 Catholic sisters in the US. SNAP is the nation’s largest and oldest support group for clergy molestation victims.
Contact:
Mary Guentner of Milwaukee, WI (414) 418-3191
Steve Theisen of Hudson IA (319) 231-1663
Gabrielle Azzaro of San Diego CA (760) 632-0730
Ann Gleason of St. Louis MO (314) 518-5046 (abused by a nun in Colorado)
David Clohessy of St. Louis MO (314) 566-9790
11 Responses to “Nun Sex Abuse Victims To Hold 12-Hour Overnight Denver Fast & Vigil”
August 1, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I am saddened by this accusation. Saddened for victims, saddened for the many Sisters who do such good work and remain faithful to the R.C. Church and to their calling.
During 8 years of school, (4 1/2 years boarding school) and working with many orders of sisters over my 50 years of business, I never had any doubt of any abuse there.
Sure I experienced some pious practices I consider wacky. Some in orders of Sisters, some with lay folks.
Ed B.
August 1, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Please remember that it was Nuns that Murdered Gilbert Bonneau, right in front of me. It was nuns that beat us until we couldn’t walk. It was nuns that abused me, and others so bad that we are tormented by the nightmares, and memories that can never go away. it was nuns that crippled me. The torture that nuns could come up with was unbelievable. They would be doing Life Long Prison terms if indicted, but as long as you have degenerates like Bishop Howard Hubbard, and others hiding them behind Catholic Money, and a phoney lying pope, these nuns will rot away before we can get to them. There are still some alive at St. Colmans.
August 1, 2008 at 8:22 pm
These abusers and protectors must all be arrested tried sentenced and punished by the American Courts.
Those who have suffered and been punished for suvire torture by the persecutors of religion are a disgrace and walk in hell flowers on earth befor ethey are sentenced in the next world to come.
All humans are only visiting here for a short time on earth and death is ever lasting. Murders and rapist can not hove a lawyer to protect them in the heavenly courts.
The many victims before us and those of us who follower in the steps of the ones before us . We will have our voices heard and justice will be for every. Amen!
In American they new “terrorist’s religious power houses” will be punished and should for the sake of religious come forward and do the right for justice of all.
When you look at these crimes it is no different than Saddam and or Hitler or any other group who commit crimes against humanity. After all these types of religious institution’s who behave this way have many many victims over the thousands of years and from that they have many thousands of years at hiding crimes and have learned ways to do this.
We support the many victims and the ones who have seen a human child die at the hand of a employee of a religious child care intuitions.
We are watching and awaiting.
August 2, 2008 at 3:01 am
I was sexually and physically abused by nuns. This is a good thing…uncover this.
August 2, 2008 at 8:28 pm
ed: what planet are you living on? it is not earth. to thomas, zisska, & bob i know you speak profoundly with truth for the same occurances i did endure; and ed i am 58 years old and people my age have nothing friviliously to gain by fabricatoing stories especially when cases have been documented all over the world not just u.s.a. and the sories al ring of the same institutionalized torture and abuse. is everyone deranged and inventing these atrocities. you wouln’t say that about the holocaust would you? i grew up in a concentration camp at st. paul’s orphanage. were is st. coleman’s by the way? what state was that in? i grew up in mpittsburgh, pa. i believe the nuns have deep seated mental and emotional problems and hide them behind the cloak of the ministry. i witnessed them making out when i was a child. just like the priests go in the conventor seminary to play with each other and enjoy their perks and privies behind closed doors. what sick cowards. don’t even try to tell me that the nuns do so much good. would you say the same if your butt was poked or your genetalia touched by the same sex as a child. if you think that is okay then ed there is something wrong with you too. and that is what is wrong with this society. stoprotecting peodphiles and torturers and stand up for the children.
August 3, 2008 at 4:10 am
I believe you Rosemary E. Miranda, and agree with you.
deanna
August 3, 2008 at 4:36 am
does anyone know what the latest progress is in Denver?
deanna
August 3, 2008 at 12:46 pm
dear deanna
i just left you a message and i found another one from you. i wish i could have went to the vigil but i will email snap to get info. i made a trip to harrisbug, pa in may in support of billl hb 1137 and spoke with the speaker of the house but to date no hearing has been scheduled yet. i have other ideas for lobbying the bill. deanna you can go to sap’s website for info and discussion boards.
rosemary
August 3, 2008 at 4:35 pm
dear rosemary,
went to SNAP conference in Chicago this past July ‘08, and yes, read some books and information and have many more to read.
deanna
August 3, 2008 at 5:45 pm
dear deanna
i want to go next year to snap’s convention. my book is still in the rough draft stage. right now i am just writing; the editing will come later and last of all i have to find a publisher and i have a propect for pr. i am considering contacting c-span for an interview. anyway it’s down the road. maybe a year. thanks for asking and your understanding.
rosemary
August 10, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Lets face it…. For those of you that don’t believe these things happened, you would have to dis-believe thousands of Men, and Women. That is your right. Just remember this, “There is coming a Reckoning day”. I guess thats how they say it.