OpEdNews - Article: Pedophile priest crime victims who can't file civil lawsuits, the "silent victims"

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By Kay Ebeling

"There could be 1400 silent victims in Providence, Rhode Island, alone."

First: Deposition transcripts from cases of 30-year Santa Barbara pedophile priest Matthew Kelly, now posted by Nye Peabody Stirling and Hale in Santa Barbara on their website (linked in left-hand column of this blog) and WO-O-O-O-O-W. You can click into the documents, read the deposition transcripts, AND copy and paste sections into your own writing.

Now it begins: nonstop proof of church crimes and coverups as documents start pouring out from resolved civil cases. Especially gratifying to me since last September when Bishop Brom said he hoped the San Diego settlements bring “closure to all the victims,” I erupted. How can settlements to about 10 percent of the crime victims bring closure?

Last week when I read this phrase: “the importance of outreach to still silent victims,” I had to phone the contact person on the press release from People of Conscience in Boston to find out more. They held a rally outside the Voice of the Faithful national meeting last week.

According to spokesman Paul Kellen, “For every one victim there are 10 others. Those are the silent victims. If they don’t come forward and identify their abuser, then we're not going to know who the guy is.

“And pedophiles don’t stop. If they (the church and advocacy groups) treat the public survivors in such a shabby manner then we are not encouraging the silent survivors to come forward.”

Bishop Accountability Dot Org held a press conference at the VOTF national meeting showing another place where you can find the “silent victims.” Documents released by attorneys for the archdiocese in Rhode Island contradict numbers released by the Rhode Island Archdiocese in the John Jay Report. Paul Kellen described the situation:

“In the John Jay Report the Diocese of Providence reported from 1957 - 2002, there were 56 accused priests.

“The diocese of Providence is now being sued by somebody within the statute of limitations for failure to supervise and in that case the Judge ordered release of documents.

“The diocese is objecting due to undue hardship because we would have to prepare copies of documents on 125 accused pedophiles.

“So they just said 125 accused priests since 1971, in their own documents filed with Superior Court in Providence by their own attorneys.

“The number of names they released in Providence is 11. So that means there are 114 that nobody knows who they are.

“And

“For every one victim there are 10 others -- those are the ten silent victims.”

There could be 1,400 silent victims in Providence, Rhode Island alone.
TALK ABOUT SILENT VICTIMS!