NL Oliver O’Grady, priest convicted of child sex abuse, volunteered in Dutch church; SNAP responds

Voice from the desert

For immediate release: Monday, April 26, 2010
Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, SNAP Western Regional Director (949) 322-7434 cell

After a conviction and prison sentence, a now-defrocked, notorious predator priest (who assaulted boys, girls and at least one infant), has re-surfaced helping at a Rotterdam Catholic church under another name.

Dutch Catholic officials should be severely disciplined for failing to do even the most simple background check on this dangerous predator.

It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train, transfer and shield predators, then ‘cut them loose’ when the heat gets too intense, letting them walk free and molest again.

Church hierarchy must, at an absolute bare minimum, promptly take three steps.

First, it must do everything possible to make sure that pedophile priests, nuns, brothers, bishops and seminarians get prosecuted effectively and imprisoned for as long as possible. (This means voluntarily turning over to law enforcement all files relating to accused predators and aggressively using church websites, pulpit announcements, diocesan newspapers, and parish bulletins to beg victims and witnesses to call law enforcement when accusations against a cleric surface.)

Second, the hierarchy must create and maintain an easy-to-use international, on-line directory of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics so that this doesn’t keep happening again and again and again.

Third, church employees who recklessly let proven predators back around kids must be fired, so that other church employees get the message that endangering kids means you’ll lose your job.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 9,000 members across the globe. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
Contacts: David Clohessy (314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940), Peter Isely (414-429-7259), Barbara Dorris (314 503 0003)