Archbishop Burke Unfairly Maligned by SNAP in Post-Dispatch

So what else is new? This is standard fare, especially from SNAP. As a matter of fact, it's what it does best.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue writes:

On June 29, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an editorial on the papal appointment of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to head the Vatican’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. The mostly favorable editorial ended with a startling paragraph that cited accusations made by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group charged that “dozens of proven, admitted, and credibly accused predator priests have been welcomed here.” It also said that “there’s not a bishop in America who has imported so many pedophile priests into his diocese as Burke has” (Emphasis is ours.)

...Bill Donohue commented as follows:

“When I read the operative verbs ‘welcomed’ and ‘imported,’ I knew it wasn’t true and I knew that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had been had...

“As it so happens, there are two treatment facilities located in the Archdiocese of St. Louis—one in Jefferson County and one in Franklin County. The Archdiocese neither owns nor operates them and both were built before Burke became the Archbishop of St. Louis.

“I’ve been waiting all week for SNAP to send us the evidence that the Archbishop ‘welcomed’ and ‘imported’ molesting priests into his diocese. But it hasn’t been able to deliver. All that exists is the vicious interpretation by SNAP.

“This is anti-Catholicism writ large. What we have is an advocacy group that is going broke because it can’t get any more money from steeple-chasing lawyers and a prominent newspaper swallowing its moonshine. The newspaper owes Archbishop Burke a public apology and SNAP needs to take an ethics class or shut down altogether.”

SNAP lost all credibility a long time ago and David Clohessy was so instrumental in this regard. This might explain why he continues to spew calumnies against good men like Archbishop Burke. Some evidently believe that hiding the truth or distorting facts in a public forum is helpful, when all it does is sow division and confusion among the people, especially those who fail to see through the falsehoods. It does, however, give Clohessy and his group "face time" on TV and in the paper. It must make him feel 'important.'

Will the Post-Dispatch apologize? We'll see. The one who really needs to apologize is Clohessy - but that's rather doubtful. Truth is irrelevant to him and his group. Many of us anticipate the day when we will no longer hear from this group or its distortions and calumnies. May God grant these obsessed individuals the healing they need for their souls.

Source: Catholic League