Detroit, USA - Members of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) staged a small protest Monday outside the downtown office of the Archdiocese of Detroit to voice their concerns about the archdiocese not telling the public and parishioners about Detroit native Joseph Shawnee Skelton Jr.'s sexual assault conviction.
The group also said a former member of a Catholic religious order continued to teach despite accusations of child molestation. Skelton resigned from St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth in 1988 after he was charged and convicted of third-degree criminal assault involving a teenager. Skelton is working as a priest in the Taglibaran diocese in the Phillipines.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit said Skelton never served in the archdiocese after the 1988 incident.
"He was removed from the seminary and faced criminal charges. He was not represented by the Detroit archdiocese in that case," said spokesman Ned McGrath. "We were not involved or named in the case. It was a public trial and he was convicted of third-degree criminal assault. Secondly ... he's never served here. He has no parishioners here. Never did. Never will."
McGrath said the Detroit archdiocese contacted the Phillipines church about Skelton.
"Several years ago, the archdiocese became aware of Skelton's ordination as a Catholic priest in the Taglibaran diocese in the Philippines. Not consulted prior to the ordination, the Detroit archdiocese has since contacted the bishop of Taglibaran, to whom Skelton reports, regarding the priest's criminal history in Michigan," McGrath said.
SNAP also accuses Catholic officials of remaining quiet after the Detroit-based Capuchins, a Catholic religious order, removed Brother Thomas J. Gardipee, who was charged with sexual misconduct with a teenager in Wisconsin in 1993.
SNAP charges that Catholic officials maintained their silence while Gardipee moved to Hawaii, where he obtained a teaching job.
McGrath said Gardipee never served in the Archdiocese of Detroit or southeast Michigan. "The 1990s case involving his time at St. Lawrence Seminary in Wisconsin was addressed by school and civil authorities at that time," said McGrath. "Not unlike any other case that happens in another diocese, Detroit archdiocesan staff would not have then, nor would it now, take it upon itself to publicize the complaints involving Gardipee in other parts of the country."
Barbara Blaine, the president of SNAP, said in the case of both Skelton and Gardipee, it was not enough for the archdiocese to notify only church officials.
"They could post their names on their Web site bullets boards (throughout parishes). They should be warning the public ... ," Blaine said.