Two group leaders leave for Europe to meet with church-abuse victims
CHICAGO — A day after the pope issued an apology to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, two leaders from a Chicago-based group for survivors of church sexual abuse left for Europe to meet with victims, criticize Vatican officials and urge independent investigations into church sex crimes.
"That's why we're going now. We're extremely concerned about what's coming out of Rome," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, before she left for Munich on Sunday. "We've been hearing from so many victims from across the globe. We're going to be meeting with some of the survivors and advocates. We're hoping to possibly meet with government officials as well."
The group made their hasty arrangements on Friday in anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI's apology on Saturday to Irish Catholics for what he called sinful and criminal acts committed by priests and the failure of Church authorities to respond to them. But the pontiff's letter has been criticized by victims' groups for not going far enough to discipline Catholic leaders for inaction.
Blaine said two more leaders from SNAP will meet them in Europe this week. The group will travel to Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands, where the church sex abuse scandal continues to grow.
"We're hoping to reach other victims, we're hoping to spread the word that the bishops shouldn't be investigating themselves," Blaine said. "We're hoping that the governments and police agencies will launch investigations and we're going to encourage anyone who has been abused, or witnessed or suspects abuse to speak up and report what they know to the police. We hope that by their doing so, they could protect others from these dangerous predators and they could begin their own healing."
