SEATTLE – The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision by Washington State officials to exempt clergy from the state’s mandatory reporting law, allowing religious officials to withhold knowledge of child rape and sexual assault when learned in the confessional.

“This is a shameful day in Washington’s history,” said SNAP spokesperson Sarah Pearson. “Governor Ferguson and Attorney General Brown have bypassed the legislature to appease powerful church lobbyists. They have chosen to protect the institutional church instead of children, survivors, and the vulnerable.”

SNAP called the move a “devastating betrayal” of public trust, warning that the exemption creates a dangerous double standard. “Every teacher, doctor, therapist, and social worker in Washington is required by law to report suspected abuse,” the group noted. “But clergy are now given a license to conceal rape and sexual assault. There is no compromise when it comes to child sexual abuse.”

Mary Dispenza is SNAP’s Washington State Leader and is herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse.

“When I was 18, I reported my abuse to a priest during confession,” said Dispenza. That priest never reported my abuser to law enforcement. My abuser continued assaulting little girls for four decades. With a law like this in place, someone could have been held accountable. Other little girls could have been saved from abuse. Instead, our government has given the church permission to continue to conceal abuse.”

SNAP urges Washington lawmakers and citizens to demand the reinstatement of full clergy reporting requirements and to hold both church and state officials accountable for protecting abusers over children.

“Rather than fight for what’s right, state leadership has backed down,” Pearson said. “They have allowed bishops and clergy to dictate public safety and abdicated their responsibility to protect the most vulnerable.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is appalled by Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s recent comments on WBZ News Radio1030 dismissing the clergy abuse crisis as “mostly homosexual issues” rather than recognizing the catastrophe for what it is: the widespread and systemic rape and sexual assault of children and vulnerable people facilitated and concealed by Catholic bishops around the world.

The conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia has been repeatedly refuted by medical and scientific experts. Mayor Koch’s comments serve to scapegoat gay men, imply that middle-school and high-school boys are not actually victims of abuse, and completely dismiss every girl or woman who has been assaulted in the Catholic Church.

Perhaps no diocese in the United States has drawn as much global attention for the rampant sexual abuse of children, and its cover-up by church leaders, as Boston. Even so, an AP investigation found that no U.S. diocese had omitted more accused priests from public disclosure than the Archdiocese of Boston.

For Mayor Koch to deny that reality while the children of Quincy go to schools and parishes run by the Archdiocese of Boston is a disservice to his community and an insult to every survivor of clergy sexual abuse in Quincy and beyond. For this, he should apologize.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) strongly condemns the John Templeton Foundation’s decision to award its 2025 Templeton Prize to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew tomorrow in New York. The foundation praised Bartholomew’s “ecumenical imperative” to care for all of creation, but survivors ask: how does this imperative extend to victims of sexual abuse within his own church?

“Is it not Patriarch Bartholomew’s ‘ecumenical imperative’ to tell the truth about abuse in his own church? To stop standing in the way of justice? To take steps to ensure this never happens again?” said Dr. Hermina Nedelescu, an advocate for victims in the Orthodox Church and keynote speaker at SNAP’s 2025 Annual Conference.

Patriarch Bartholomew’s refusal to remove all known offenders from ministry and discipline bishops and church leaders for facilitating and concealing abuse is a profound moral failure that poses an ongoing public safety threat to the Orthodox community. Such a refusal should disqualify him from receiving an honor that purports to celebrate spiritual leadership and human dignity.

By rewarding Bartholomew, the Templeton Foundation is not only overlooking these failures, it is actively causing harm to survivors by honoring a figure who has stood in the way of justice for those who were raped and sexually abused in his church.

By Dan McNevin, Board Treasurer, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

In his recent community letter, Bishop Barber accused survivors of sexual abuse of “racing to the courthouse steps,” a remark that cruelly distorts their motives and heaps fresh insult on their pain. Nothing could be further from the truth. Survivors are not after profit, they are fighting for justice, dignity, and the truth.

The reality is that the Diocese of Oakland is far from poor. Bishop Barber resides in a 4,000-square-foot apartment in a $200 million cathedral complex, while the diocese controls more than 80 parish campuses, cemetery land in Lafayette, and other valuable East Bay properties. Court records from the bankruptcy reveal hundreds of millions in cash, investments, and real estate holdings. If these assets were valued as residential land, Bishop Barber would be considered a billionaire – one of the richest men in America.

Meanwhile, survivors, many of whom struggle to pay rent, afford medication, or keep up with student loans, continue to suffer. Who is really being selfish here: the bishop with a billion-dollar portfolio, or the 345 individuals seeking fair restitution for sex crimes committed against them as children?

Instead of addressing these crimes with honesty and compassion, Bishop Barber has spent more than $30 million on lawyers to prevent justice and conceal the truth. His list of “credibly accused” priests contains only 65 names, when the real number is more than twice that.

This bankruptcy isn’t only about money for past crimes. It’s about justice, and it’s about the future. The church cannot be safe until the full truth is revealed about how Bishop Barber and his predecessors concealed child sexual abuse. It cannot be safe until laws ensure it never happens again. Bishop Barber must come clean, and he needs to pay what he owes.

Sincerely,
Dan McNevin
Clergy Abuse Survivors and Board Treasurer
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

Pope Leo’s emphasis on “false accusations” and “priests’ rights” in his first public interview, comes in the face of damning evidence of his own failure to follow canon law and the Peruvian bishops’ abuse policy. His record shows not just ignorance or insensitivity, but a rejection of zero tolerance for sexual violence and cover-up at the very moment he claims to uphold it.

The message to abuse survivors is to expect the status quo: a church that continues to shield known offenders, refuses to discipline bishops who facilitate abuse by keeping rapists and abusers in power, and a church that will use every tool at their disposal to preserve this system.

SNAP Board President Shaun Dougherty responds:

“We wouldn’t have to keep focusing on this crisis if Pope Leo would just do the right thing. Enact a global zero tolerance law, release the criminal evidence in the Vatican archives, and stop spending millions on attorneys and lobbyists to fight every effort to pass laws that allow survivors to seek justice. Until these basic steps are taken, the pope’s continued failure to act will ensure that this crisis remains front and center, as it should.

When Pope Leo says not to expect major reforms, it is a rejection of survivors. It’s an abandonment of children by the church. The failure to stop abuse, to remove offenders from positions where they can continue committing sexual violence, is not just a moral failure – it’s a death sentence. We’ve lost too many friends to suicide and despair.“

SNAP Global Advocacy Chair Peter Isely adds:

“What the world needs – and what survivors desperately need – is a binding and universal zero tolerance church law that upholds the fundamental human rights and protections of children and others against rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy. The Catholic Church has created a global catastrophe through its careful maintenance of a system that has allowed clergy to abuse children and vulnerable people around the world with impunity. The Vatican has ignored every major international call for accountability, including from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee Against Torture.”

September marks the 14th anniversary of SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights’ filing of a case with the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, urging the ICC to investigate the Vatican for crimes against humanity. SNAP’s subsequent report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and report to the Committee Against Torture (CAT) spurred UN inquiries that resulted in a conclusion that widespread sexual violence within the Catholic church amounts to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited by the Convention Against Torture.

The Holy See has since failed to implement the CRC’s 2014 recommendations which include canon law reform, an “independent mechanism” for monitoring children’s rights and the “conduct of the Catholic hierarchy” in managing sexual abuse, “transparent sharing” of archives related to management of sexual abuse, and immediate removal of child sexual abusers from ministry.

SNAP Spokesperson Sarah Pearson adds:

“Survivors brought their evidence to the highest international bodies, and those bodies affirmed what we’ve known for decades: that the Catholic Church has perpetrated and perpetuated widespread sexual violence amounting to torture. When Pope Leo says not to expect any major reforms regarding church doctrine related to sexuality, he is saying, ‘Let’s leave this system in place.’” 

On the day of Pope Leo’s election, SNAP said to the new pope, “You can end the abuse crisis – the only question is, will you?” Pope Leo has given us his answer.

Pope Leo’s latest remarks to bishops instructing them not to hide sexual abuse allegations are hollow and disingenuous. Behind closed doors, he tells bishops what survivors have demanded for decades, yet in practice he has refused to abide by these standards himself. In Peru, his former Diocese of Chiclayo has smeared and attacked victims in his name, and he has never taken responsibility. He has ignored every single reform SNAP presented to him in a letter on the day of his election.

“Pope Leo’s instructions cannot be taken seriously given his own track record over the last few years,” said Peter Isely, head of SNAP’s Global Advocacy. “He speaks of accountability while presiding over the cover-up of child sex crimes. The only thing he can do to restore trust is to implement a binding and universal zero tolerance law, immediately remove abusers from ministry, and open up the Vatican abuse archives, including his own records, to civil authorities.”

Until Pope Leo confronts his own failures and implements enforceable reforms, survivors and the public should treat his statements as little more than damage control.

This week’s press conference demanding the release of the full Epstein files underscores a truth survivors of abuse by the world’s most powerful religious institutions know all too well: widespread sex crimes against children and vulnerable people do not happen in isolation. In the same way it takes a network to facilitate, enable, and conceal sexual violence, it will take a network to secure justice for survivors.

That is why we stand in full support of the Epstein survivors’ call on the U.S. Congress to vote to release the complete files. Just as the U.S. justice system has failed to hold the Catholic Church and other powerful religious institutions accountable, allowing them to hide documents, protect offenders, shield enablers, and traffic victims across borders, it has also failed Epstein’s victims by keeping vital records locked away.

As survivors, we know the extraordinary courage it takes to come forward, to name names, and to confront powerful figures at immense personal risk. Epstein survivors have carried that burden with strength and bravery, and they deserve transparency, justice, and full accountability.

“Survivors everywhere understand that secrecy is the abuser’s greatest weapon,” said Angela Walker, Executive Director of SNAP. “The Epstein files must be fully released – not redacted, not hidden – so that every person and institution that enabled these crimes is exposed. Survivors deserve nothing less than the full truth, and the public deserves to be protected from those who continue to pose a danger.”

No matter how wealthy and powerful the individual, the institution, or their allies may be, the crimes must be exposed, the truth must be told, and all who participated in, facilitated, or concealed abuse must finally be brought to justice.