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  Advocacy Group Wants More Information on Straling's Role in Abuse Cases

KRNV [Reno NV]
August 18, 2005

An advocacy group is demanding action from the Reno Catholic Church regarding sex abuse.

The group is called "SNAP," The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

There are two things SNAP is trying to accomplish. It's trying to get officials with the Reno Catholic Church to be proactive in finding molestation victims. They also want the church to come clean about retired bishop, Phillip Straling and his alleged role in dozens of abuse cases in California.

Thursday, SNAP members hand delivered a letter to church officials at the diocese headquarters in Reno, requesting just that.

According to a report published in the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier this month, Straling has been named as a key witness in more than 150 lawsuits in Southern California against priests accused of molesting children.

The suits allege Straling should have known that some of the priests were having sex with children. Leaders of SNAP believe action on the part of the church could help victims heal and make kids in today's church safer.

Thomas Rodrigue SNAP activist, "Go to every parish where there have been valid accusations of abuse and implore the members of that parish to come forward, because for every victim that comes forward there are 10 or 20 behind him that never come forward. And if they're going to get help they must come forward."

Straling is not accused of sexual abuse himself. He came to Reno in 1995 after living in California. He just retired from the Reno diocese this year.

Straling is out of town right now, but church officials say they will pass the group's message along.