The
New York Times today reports that in two Missouri clergy sex abuse cases, the Roman Catholic Church and lawyers for accused priests have subpoenaed the victim advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and taken a lengthy deposition from its national director, David Clohessy. SNAP has been subpoenaed five times in recent months, even though it is not a party in the lawsuits. One of the subpoenas asks SNAP to turn over all documents in the last 23 years that mention repressed memory, any current or former priest in Kansas City, the diocese, the priest who is alleged to have abused the plaintiffs, the John Doe plaintiff or plaintiff's attorney. According to the Times report:
... William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”
Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group... He said bishops were also rethinking their approach of paying large settlements to groups of victims. “The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one,” Mr. Donohue said.
However, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said Mr. Donohue was incorrect. “There is no national strategy,” she said, and there was no meeting where legal counsel for the bishops decided to get more aggressive.
