A group aimed at fighting sexual abuse in the Catholic Church wants a new bishop to help its cause.Bishop Thomas Paprocki has been at his new job as head of the Springfield Diocese for about a week now.
And the Chicago-based support group SNAP, which stands for the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, say there are a few things he needs to do.
Judy Jones is the Associate Director for the Midwest branch of SNAP and was in Quincy Wednesday, June 30th.
She says the group is urging the new bishop to deal with child abuse within the diocese right away.
The group wants Paprocki to post all the names of credibly accused clergy within the diocese on his website, something 24 other bishops have already done.
"This new bishop is from Chicago and Chicago, they have done this. They have named the credibly accused on its website, the diocese's website and he's always bragging about that. So I think it would be one of the first things he would do here as being a new bishop," said Jones.
The second thing Jones says the group wants the bishop to do is let people know where the priest accused of sexually assaulting an Illinois girl is now located.
Father Henry Willenborg was suspended from active ministry while working in Wisconsin for allegedly molesting a Quincy teenager years before.
There was also a New York Times article that said he seduced a young woman, got her pregnant and then urged her to get an abortion.
The article went on to say he essentially ignored the boy once the woman gave birth.
"Nobody has heard anything about where Father Willenborg is. Is he in some independent, private institution or where is he? The new bishop needs to make it known where he is at," said Jones.
Jones and SNAP are urging anybody who has any information on Father Willenborg to contact law enforcement.
She also wants anybody who has been harmed by any clergy member, even if it happened years ago, to also let law enforcement know.
SIC: CTC
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