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Letter sent out to over 185 US Bishops,
RE: Reverend R. Daniel Conlon, Bishop of Steubenville, to head the USCCB
committee on "Child and Youth Protection."
November 11, 2010
Dear Bishop
We strongly urge you to
'NOT' elect Reverend R. Daniel Conlon, Bishop of Steubenville, to head the USCCB
committee on "Child and Youth Protection."
Yours is a clear choice
between a colleague who hasn’t been widely criticized for mishandling child sex
abuse and cover up cases (Zurek) and one who has been (Conlon).
Here are
some of our reasons:
--Conlon removed Fr. Gary Zalenski from his parish
duties over three years ago for credible allegations of sexually abusing a
child. We have urged him to put Zalenski into a protected treatment center, yet
he is still walking around free.
--Conlon, to this day, is secretive
about Zalenski’s clerical status, though we know he is being
defrocked.
--In 2006, SNAP hand delivered letters to Conlon from victims
who were sexually abused by Steubenville predator priests. Conlon has NEVER
responded to any one of them.
--Several victims have asked for help with
paying for their therapy, yet Conlon ignores their pleas, even though their
therapy was being paid for before he became the bishop of
Steubenville.
--Conlon's track record, while he was assigned to child
protection in the Cincinnati Archdiocese, was to hide records, treat victims so
badly it made them feel re-abused, and covering up crimes against
kids.
We believe that Bishop Conlon still treats victims with extreme
disrespect, still quietly moves priests who have complaints against them to new
assignments in unsuspecting communities, and does very little to protect
kids.
Judy Block Jones
SNAP Midwest Associate
Director
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
Kristine Ward
NSAC Director,
National Survivor Advocates
Coalition
937-272-0308
KristineWard@hotmail.com
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