Members of SNAP, the Priest sex abuse network, say the Portland, Oregon Archdiocese is harboring pedophile priests and failing to comply with a court order to disclose private records. And they have been saying it for a while. For those who have not seen it or are not extremely familiar with the story, you may want to check this Salem-News.com article and video and see how the church was ordered to disclose the coveted records.
This article from April 18th 2007 gives the impression that transparency may at last be at hand as the church handed over millions to abuse survivors who took the time to take their cases against the Portland Archdiocese to court.
But in the ensuing months Arch Bishop Joseph Vlazny has apparently blocked and deflected all efforts to release the records of the offending priests that were ordered by the court and even celebrated that day just less than a year ago.
SNAP say wounds are far from healed for all too many and that only a small fraction of abuse survivors ever come forward in the first place.
They describe the problems as large and out of control and fault church politics which deals with sex abuse of children behind closed doors and sees itself as clearly above the law, in their opinion and according to much documentation.
Both admit that releasing the personnel files on the offending priests would likely expose many more, and they know that the release of those records could establish a precedent that other Catholic Archdiocese's would in turn have to follow.
Both say it is the only answer.
The main point is the Portland, Oregon Catholic Archdiocese' refusal to release those private records that would potentially affect many more priests who have so far escaped prosecution for committing sexual acts against children.
The hook is that an Oregon court ordered the records to be released, what kind of pull does the Catholic Church have on Oregon's courts anyway?
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