SNAP Revolution in L.A. Today. Event Friday 11 AM to be Last at Cathedral, Moving Future Action to Federal Building

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Ya Basta! This morning Jim Robertson was elected to run the new SNAP Los Angeles, and not a day too soon, as SNAP sent out the press statement below last night with a major error, referring to the "Paracletes." The religious order they referenced are "Servants of the Paraclete."

A lot of Los Angeles survivors had grown weary of continuing professional mess-ups that we have learned to expect from SNAP in Los Angeles the last few years. As a result the press is not getting the whole story and many survivors dropped out of the movement locally, agreeing among ourselves that we need representatives who live in Los Angeles, not Orange and Ventura Counties. Most of us in L.A. are media savvy enough to run a press conference, we don't need or want David Clohessy in St. Louis to tell us what to say and do.

There will be an event in front of the Cathedral Friday at eleven AM, and Jim promises it will be the last event in front of the Cathedral until things change. On Friday, we may actuall march to the new location for future events, three blocks south to the Federal Building, I believe it will be at the Main Street entrance, where we can leaflet and start conversations with individuals who can actually DO SOMETHING about prosecuting the perverts in the Catholic priesthood and their enablers.

Below is yet another press statement from SNAP from whoever was running the Los Angeles branch before today, when veteran activist Jim Robertson finally took over.

Survivors in Los Angeles now have local control and we can build a democratically run organization.

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SNAP PRESS STATEMENT WITH ANOTHER GREAT BIG MISTAKE
Hopefully the last incorrect press statement to come out of SNAP in Los Angeles for a long time:
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Please consider coming to this event!

Clergy sex victims release more church records

Church had 'centers' for predators as far back as 50 years ago

Frustrated by 'on-going church secrecy,' SNAP urges Pope to 'come clean'

Group is also upset because LA archdiocese & priests still hiding documents

One Catholic official admitted that 30% of rejected seminarians are later ordained

What

Holding signs and child hood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will release a dozen pages of once secret church records proving that the Pope and other top Catholic officials - in Rome and here - knew much about pedophile priests even decades ago. (Several of the documents have never been released before publicly). They will also urge

-- the Pope to disclose how he and his office handled pedophile priests for years from 2001-05, and

-- Cardinal Roger Mahony to prod the Pope to directly answer questions about recent allegations against the Pope,

-- Mahony to speed up the release of thousands of pages about LA predator priests and cover ups.

When

Wednesday, March 31 at 11:00 a.m.

Where

Outside Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St. (at N. Grand Ave.) in Los Angeles

Who

A few clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a California police officer who did a week-long vigil in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels seven years ago.

Why

Newly released records, including letters to the Vatican in the 1960s, show a Catholic official admitting a "tremendous problem" of predator priests. The documents prove that almost 50 years ago, top church staff knew how widespread and incorrigible pedophiles are. They severely undercut recent claims by the Pope's defenders that he and others in the church hierarchy mishandled cases because they were "on a learning curve."

Some of the records are written by the head of the Paracletes, a religious order that tries to rehabilitate predator priests. Decades ago, he admitted that "There are now in many parts of the world (facilities) "where 'Christ's wounded priests' may be cared for." In another shocking acknowledgement, he said that 30% of all priesthood candidates who are first rebuffed because of "question(able) qualifications" are later ordained because "someone in authority overruled" the initial rejection. He also urged the Vatican to adopt a "heavy penalty" for those "tampering with the innocence of the young," including "retirement . . .within a monastery" or "complete (defrocking)," in part because "Many experienced priests agree (we) not turning out men as dedicated to their priesthood as we did in former days."

The cleric had a private audience with then-Pope Paul VI and later wrote that he opposed "the return of priests to active duty that have been addicted to abnormal practices, especially sins with the young."

These records, and thousands of other similar pages, were to be made public as part of the $660 million Los Angeles Archdiocese settlement in 2007. Church defense lawyers are still fighting to keep those records hidden.

Several times during his papacy, Benedict has urged bishop to be "transparent" with child sex cases. In light of his advice, and recent disclosures of abuse and cover up in the Pope's home diocese in Germany, SNAP wants the pontiff to publicly disclosed how he handled hundreds of cases from across the globe from 2001-2005 as head of CDF (the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), the Vatican office where all such cases are sent.

SNAP is holding a similar event simultaneously in St. Louis, where the Paracletes are now headquartered. (314-965-0860, stmichael@primary.net, http://www.theservants.org/servants.htm) It's headed by Fr. Peter Lechner.

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WE NEED TO PLEDGE to do research and know the subject matter starting DAYS BEFORE conducting any press events. No more embarrassment for L.A. Survivors, as we watch our "spokesmen" get up and say incorrect information, stumble, not know names, not know where the church was, which perp, I for one am so glad that period of the strangelhold from St. Louis we have had is over, and we can finally start doing things right in Los Angeles:

Personally, I'm frustrated with SNAP secrecy and think the organization has no credibility calling for transparency from the Pope when it hides all its own records and actions and backgrounds and everything it does from all but a handful of survivors.

YA BASTA!

Enough of this impotence. SNAP is going to accomplish things in Los Angeles, starting this Good Friday.

It's weird they would make a mistake about "The Paracletes"

Weird, considering both SNAP and "The Servants of the Paraclete" are headquartered in St. Louis:
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