Survivors and advocates to deliver church whistleblower documents to AG Ferguson's office
Groups urge Pope Francis to investigate Archbishop Etienne for breaking new church law by refusing to comply with AGO subpoena
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 10, 2024
CONTACT:
Tim Law
Catholic Accountability Project Founding Member
Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) Board Member
timalaw@aol.com
206-412-0165
Mary Dispenza
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Northwest Director
Catholic Accountability Project Founding Member
425-941-6001
mcdispenza@comcast.net
When: Thursday, July 11th, 11:00am
Where: St. James Cathedral, 804 9th Ave, Seattle, WA; AG Ferguson’s Office, 800 5th Ave #2000, Seattle, WA
Who: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse, members of the Catholic Accountability Project (CAP), Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
What: A press conference where survivors of clergy abuse and members of CAP will announce a complaint against Archbishop Etienne sent to the Vatican outside St. James Cathedral and march from the cathedral to AG Ferguson’s office to deliver thousands of pages of sexual abuse documents and evidence provided by church whistleblowers
Why: On July 26th, 2023, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sent subpoenas to Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, and Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane for documents pertaining to clergy sexual abuse. The Catholic dioceses objected to the subpoenas and refused to share any documents that were not already publicly available.
After CAP publicly announced the subpoenas and urged AG Ferguson to announce his investigation and open a hotline on February 13th, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) sent amended subpoenas on April 10th, and the Catholic dioceses again refused to comply.
CAP member and Seattle-based clergy abuse survivor Mary Dispenza speaks at a February 13th press conference outside the Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office in Olympia
On May 9th, Attorney General Ferguson announced that he had officially opened an investigation into clergy sexual abuse, filing a petition in the King County Superior Court to compel the Archdiocese of Seattle to comply with his subpoenas.
On Friday July 12th at 1:30pm, the AGO and Archdiocese will appear in King County Superior Court for a motion hearing regarding the Attorney General’s petition.
Tomorrow morning outside St. James Cathedral, CAP will publicly release a complaint made to the Vatican against Archbishop Etienne for his refusal to cooperate with the AGO, which is in violation of Pope Francis’s decree Vos Estis Lux Mundi, a Catholic Church law created to provide means of accountability for bishops and religious superiors who commit or cover up abuse.
Vos Estis Lux Mundi allows the Vatican to investigate conduct “consisting of actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations.”
In response to CAP’s February announcement of the AGO’s subpoenas, several Catholic Church whistleblowers have reached out to the organization to provide documents and evidence pertaining to sexual abuse and its institutional concealment in Washington State’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders. Members of CAP will march from St. James Cathedral to the AG’s downtown Seattle office to deliver the documents to AG Ferguson.
CAP is urging victims, concerned Catholics, and whistleblowers to report their abuse, and share their experiences and concerns, as well as any other relevant documents and evidence by calling the Attorney General’s clergy abuse hotline at 833-952-6277.
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The Catholic Accountability Project (CAP) is dedicated to advocating for justice for victims of clergy sexual abuse and holding perpetrators and those who enabled them responsible for their actions. We relentlessly pursue the vision of a church free from abuse through proactive intervention by justice officials, an unequivocal end to secrecy, and an unwavering commitment to full accountability for the harm caused.