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  Fire Aftermath
SNAP Leader Sifts through Ashes

By Bill Frogameni
Toledo Free Press
September 14, 2005

Before Claudia Vercellotti left for a doctor's appointment last Tuesday, she considered canceling and taking a nap. Had she stayed, Vercellotti might have been engulfed in the fire that decimated her South Toledo home.

Vercellotti, the volunteer co-leader of Toledo SNAP, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, had worked during Labor Day weekend. "I'm a heavy sleeper. Thank God I went to the appointment," she said.

Within a half hour, Vercellotti was called and told her home was burning. The call came from her neighbor, Catherine Hoolahan, a local attorney who represents several clients who allege clerical sexual abuse.

Virtually everything in Vercellotti's home is gone. Toledo Fire Chief Michael Bell said the blaze is one of the worst he's seen.

"For me, as far as heat, it would be in the top 10 worst fires I've seen in my 25 years," he said.

But the worst blow to Vercellotti isn't the loss of property: it's the exhaustive records she compiled working with SNAP.

"I had thousands of documents that help us fight clerical sexual abuse," she said. "I had taped conversations, articles, letters from victims and insider documents. It's all gone. In a way, I feel like I've let down all the victims who've trusted me with their secrets."

"I have four close relatives down there that we haven't been able to track down," she said.

The possibility of arson is not something Vercellotti wants to think about.

"I can't wrap my head around the idea that someone would do that," she said, but added her public role with SNAP has brought her threats.

Tony Comes, a Toledo firefighter, was off-duty but went to the scene to support Vercellotti. Comes, a fellow SNAP member, is the subject of the Oscar-nominated film documentary "Twist of Faith," which chronicles his personal struggles with alleged clerical abuse and the Toledo Catholic Diocese. When considering the possibility of arson, Comes said he wouldn't be surprised.

"They had conditions for a perfect fire. Like Chief Bell says, the cause will probably remain undetermined, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone targeted Claudia," he said.

Comes said Vercellotti has been at the forefront of the movement and this might have radicalized her adversaries.

"I know personally that when you take the public position we've taken, it rubs some people the wrong way," he said.

This sentiment's echoed by Barbara Blaine, a the Toledo native who founded and leads SNAP from Chicago.

"It's fair to say there's no local SNAP volunteer who works harder than Claudia," she said. "When a wounded victim calls at four in the morning, she's there."

Blaine said Vercellotti has been a catalyst behind a number of landmarks for victims in Toledo. That list includes being the source for The Blade's exhaustive December 2002 expose of clerical sexual abuse; there's also "Twist of Faith" and her behind-the-scenes advocacy that resulted in the murder indictment of Rev. Gerald Robinson. Blaine also credits Vercellotti with being the prime mover behind Ohio Senate Bill 17, pending legislation that seeks to expand the statute of limitations for alleged sexual abuse victims in civil cases. Documentation Vercellotti compiled to push SB 17 was also burned.

Vercellotti's dream is to see her struggle with the church come to some kind of resolution so she can move on.

"I don't expect a perfect ending to this," she said. "We've come a long way, but there's still a lot to do. Right now, the whole thing's surreal."

The fire came just a week after Vercellotti's relatives in Biloxi, Mississippi, were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

 
 

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