Media outlets like NBC, CBS, and USA Today have fallen over themselves to connect the Penn State abuse story to the Catholic Church abuse narrative by interviewing David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Clohessy has used these opportunities to hammer home the point that people have the "moral imperative" to call police when abuse of a child is suspected.
In truth, Clohessy is entirely correct in his assertion. But his words are flagrantly hypocritical.
Back in the early 1990's, even after he began his work with SNAP, David Clohessy knew of allegations that his brother, Kevin – a Catholic priest – was sexually abusing innocent boys. But David did nothing about it.
A small number of newspapers reported in 2002:
David said he had known for years about the allegations and agonized over whether to report his brother to authorities. He even contemplated distributing leaflets outside his brother's church. But in the end, he did not go to the police.
"It will probably be a quandary until the day I die," said David …
For two decades, David Clohessy has been railing against Church leaders for supposedly not calling authorities when hearing of suspected abuse by priests. Meanwhile, he did the very same thing, and he may very well have jeopardized the safety of numerous innocent children by his inaction.
Hypocrisy from SNAP? Absolutely.
It is long overdue that the media learn the truth about the history and real motives of SNAP.
(By the way, check out an excellent post from Kyle Drennen on this subject at NewsBusters.org.)
