Protest held outside of Jefferson City church a week after lawsuit was filed against Diocese
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Two men from a national organization representing the victims in a sex abuse case against the Jefferson City Diocese protested outside a Jefferson City church on Thursday.
The men represent the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who held the event outside Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
According to previous reporting, the lawsuit filed in federal court by five victims, claims that the Diocese and the Rev. Shawn McKnight covered up abuse for 50 years and "hindered Plaintiffs from discovering their causes of action against the Defendants for their negligent and intentional conduct."
"We call on the bishop to be as helpful, and informative, and honest about all the child molesting clerics in the Diocese," SNAP member David Clohessy said.
The group wrote a letter on its website that is dated Thursday. The letter accuses McKnight of not revealing anything about the priests, including if they are alive, their current whereabouts, if they still work for the church or if they had prior abuse allegations.
“Your secrecy, in fact, hurts your own staff. One of the newly-accused is identified in the lawsuit as 'Fr. Dave.' It’s clear that neither the victim nor the attorney knows his full name,” the letter reads. “Right now, there are three priests on your website whose first name is David. Surely they feel uncomfortable knowing there’s an alleged child molester, identified only as ‘Fr. Dave’ in the diocese. Your silence is essentially casting doubt on them.”
McKnight wrote in a Thursday statement – which was sent in an email at 11:54 a.m. Thursday -- that three of the priests mentioned in the lawsuit are dead, claims one did not work in Jefferson City and is working to confirm the identity of another.
“Two of the priests named — Thomas Duggan and Gerald Howard (formerly Carmen Sita) — are deceased. Both had previously been listed on our public registry of clergy credibly accused of misconduct. This list is available on our website at www.diojeffcity.org/safe-environment,” the statement says. “The lawsuit also names Fr. Francis Gillgannon, who died in 2004. The diocese is currently investigating the allegation against him. We were not aware of any allegations made against him before this lawsuit.
“Additionally, the suit mentions ‘Fr. Darr’ and ‘Fr. Dave.’ There is no record of a ‘Fr. Darr’ ever serving in the Diocese of Jefferson City, and we are working to identify ‘Fr. Dave.’ We have confirmed that this allegation does not refer to any priest named ‘David’ currently serving in our diocese.”
