SNAP group seeks apology from Father Wild

Clergy sex abuse survivors on Wednesday called for Father Robert Wild, president of Marquette University, to apologize for leaving pedophile priest Donald McGuire in active ministry when Wild led the Chicago Jesuits in the 1980s, and to join in calling for more disclosure by the Jesuits about abusive priests within the order.

At a news conference at Marquette, members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, also handed out excerpts of documents filed Monday in a Chicago court that SNAP says show Jesuits "knew with certainty that McGuire was a serial predator and an ongoing and chronic danger to children," yet took no steps to protect them, while actively covering for McGuire.

A SNAP letter to Wild read: "Mindful of your many accomplishments during the course of your impressive Jesuit career and grateful for your decades of service to the Catholic community, we are nonetheless deeply disappointed and alarmed to learn that one of those Jesuit superiors, according to the evidence in the Chicago documents, was you."

Wild declined to comment Wednesday. Marquette released a statement noting that the material is the subject of ongoing litigation involving the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, the formal name of the Jesuit order. Wild announced last year he would retire in June.

McGuire became famous as the spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, but played off that connection to attract more families whose sons became his victims on worldwide travels, said Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest regional director.

JSOnline

Soooo go ahead and reread this and tell me this isn't about Anderson's anti-Catholicism.  "Mindful of your many accomplishments during the course of your impressive Jesuit career and grateful for your decades of service to the Catholic community....."   Has Anderson ever addressed an orthodox bishop the same way?  Wild promotes homosexual acts and Anderson gives him a big kiss? 

Then this story happened to appear very quickly after the above.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great response, the right kind of response.  What we probably wont hear about is the problems discussed in Goodbye, Good Men. 

The two-day conference, sponsored by Marquette University Law School's Restorative Justice Initiative, will explore the wide-ranging effects of the crisis and ways Catholics are addressing the damage - both to victims and others who've lost their faith as a result.

"We're looking at this as a path of healing," said Marquette law professor Janine Geske, who leads the Restorative Justice Initiative. "Things people inside and outside (the church) can do to help survivors and their families and others who have lost their faith."

Some survivors have criticized the conference as too church-heavy[?] and unrepresentative of the more critical voices on the issues. [How can you have a conference about abuse in the Church without the Church?]

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests takes issue with the conference being hosted by a Jesuit institution when many survivors, he said, think the Jesuits have been less than transparent about their handling of sex abuse cases in their own order.

"This is not bishops and scholars, survivors and law enforcement meeting on equal terms to hold a much needed conversation," Isely said. Still, he added, "It is always a hopeful sign when the issue is being acknowledged and addressed."

Organizers had hoped that the much anticipated report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the causes and context of the sex abuse crisis would have been released at or in advance of the conference.

Margaret Smith of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which is conducting the research, is scheduled to speak on its findings. Although preliminary findings have been reported, the final report still is being drafted, according to the Bishops Conference.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki will welcome participants but is not involved in the discussions.