Bishop Tobin's other responsibilities

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin was reminded Tuesday by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) that child victims of clerical sexual abuse are owed attention he has diverted to his quarrel with Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

At a small demonstration by abuse victims outside Tobin's office, author Ruth Moore of Hull, Mass., said:

He claims that it's important that we protect the unborn. But it's equally as important to protect those who have been born, and those young children who have been raped and sodomized by clerics and priests. But yet he seems to protect those clerics.

More specifically, SNAP said:

... Bishop Thomas Tobin should aggressively reach out to anyone who has knowledge of either predator’s crimes, especially because they are known offenders who walk free. For the sake of public safety, Tobin should also post on his website the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. (More than 15 bishops, a small minority, have taken this simple, inexpensive, proven method of alerting parents about and protecting kids from dangerous predators. Tobin, however, has repeatedly refused to do so, even though his diocese has one of the highest rates of accused pedophile priests in the US.)

Protecting children from clerical abuse by those under his authority is undeniably among Tobin's responsibilities. SNAP argues (citing examples, which church spokesmen attempt to rebut) that "admitted, proven and credibly accused pedophile priests like Lepire out there, getting little or no help or supervision or monitoring from or by the bishops who essentially helped them rape and sodomized kids by ignoring or hiding their crimes."