The founder of a prominent advocacy group for children sexually abused by Catholic priests has resigned, the second major departure in the wake of a lawsuit filed last month by a former employee alleging that the organization colluded with lawyers to refer clients and profit from settlements.
In an email to supporters Barbara Blaine said her decision to leave SNAP, which stands for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, had nothing to do with the legal action.
“(P)lease know that the recent lawsuit filed against SNAP, as the others in the past which have no merit, had absolutely no bearing on my leaving,” Blaine, herself a victim of clergy abuse as a child who started SNAP 29 years ago, said in an email sent on Saturday (Feb. 4). “The discussions and process of my departure has been ongoing.”
Blaine’s resignation was effective a day earlier, on Feb. 3.
The surprise announcement comes less than two weeks after David Clohessy, SNAP’s executive director and also a fixture in the organization for nearly 30 years, announced he too was leaving.
Clohessy and SNAP officials had also insisted that his departure had been in the works for months and had nothing to do with the lawsuit, filed in Illinois on Jan. 17.
The lawsuit by Gretchen Rachel Hammond names Blaine, Clohessy and other SNAP leaders as defendants and alleges that “SNAP does not focus on protecting or helping survivors – it exploits them.”
Full story from Crux.
Well, SNAP long ago left behind concern for victims and their advocacy, now solely interested in funding themselves:
When CA SB 131 died 3 years ago (Remember, in July, 2013? That would have lifted the statute of limitations against the Catholic Church AGAIN for a new crop of alleged abuse plaintiffs, coming forward now decades and decades later—yet it exempted the California Public School System and their Teachers Unions: how nice), their $$ began to dwindle away.
No doubt Ms Blaine will find some other rich source of suing productive organizations, perhaps with Green Peace or the Sierra Club, and go on to a much better, 6-figure salary elsewhere (She was earning $86k a year at SNAP)—all for the victims of course.
snap did not start the problem
I’m sure that nothing delights certain persons more than to see the turmoil in the organization that shed a light into the dark corners of the Church.
With or without SNAP, we all should be shining lights where darkness lurks, even still.
It was all for the victims — of course. Only for the victims.
SNAP lost its focus over a decade ago and became primarily a self-funding financial services organization.
It is rubbish that SNAP was “shining lights into dark corners”, uncovering the abuse crisis—it was many of us Catholics who insisted on episcopal accountability long before they showed up. No, we weren’t sycophantic suck-ups to bishops and often got ostracized and smeared for it. It was the John Jay Report (2004, which noted 81% of the victims were male, BTW), largely comprised of faithful Catholics, provided a blueprint to clean up the cesspool. SNAP never appeared very interested in that goal, and often appeared bitterly hostile to the very continued existence of the Catholic Church.
Now the money is gone and…
…soon—so will they be. Gone, that is.
Well said, Campion !
Folks, namely O Campion and YFC: It is best that you look at the mirror. The tactics of SNAP are no different from those of your company who have found cause in tearing down the Church, not building her up. There have been folks here who have used and continue to use the abhorrence of abuse as a means to discredit the teaching authority of the Magisterium.
No, orthodox Catholics understand, as others do not, that the abhorrence of abuse can be be traced to those who reject the Magisterium, reject orthodoxy, reject the sixth commandment, and reject the doctrines of sin and judgment (i.e., liberals). Orthodox Catholics discredit the liberals in authority. We do not discredit the teaching authority itself which liberals in authority never properly espouse. And the “folks here” are only a minuscule snapshot of orthodox Catholics all over the globe who get this.
Ralph, one has read enough of the posts of the two I named above for me to assert that they have referred to the abuse crisis in order to discredit and invite disobedience against some of the teachings of the Magisterium.