This Is What Good Friday Should Look Like, Not a silly old Pope calling our experiences 'gossip'

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"Today is Good Friday a very important day in the Catholic Church, it’s the day we remember Christ’s suffering and his death," said Tina, in L.A. from Ireland, at the L.A Cathedral Good Friday event for adult victims of pedophihle Catholic prietss. Tina was on camera on KNBC, and she continued: "What hurts me most is that we should be here today talking about all the suffering that goes on at the hands of the church today."

Advocates for adult victims of pedophile priests held vigils Good Friday in cities around the country, here are pictures from events in Chicago and New York:


ABOVE: Chicago Good Friday Vigil

In Chicago: “The event was very prayerful,” said Rick Springer, an adult victim of pedophile priest and advocate for victims. “A number of passersby or worshipers from the cathedral actually joined us in saying it. I handed several of them a copy of our prayer and a couple stayed to say it once with us, they did not immediately run off, at least.

“As far as I know there was nothing on the news or in papers about our vigil in Chicago though, go figure.”

In New York City, a group gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Pictured right are Tim, Rich, and Glenn

In Chicago they even composed a prayer:

Gracious and Loving God,

We gather on this most solemn and holy day, sacred to Christians everywhere and we stand in sorrow and solidarity with all the abused, especially by those ordained and professed as ministers of the faith.

The Gospels tell us that on midday that first Good Friday, darkness fell over the land - a darkness that lasted for three hours. On this Good Friday we are painfully aware of the shadows of secrecy and silence in our beloved church and its leaders, hiding their shame, protecting an institution at the expense of vulnerable children and crucifying anew the Lord of Glory.

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We pray and beseech you to help us roll away the stones of deception that have for too long been in place.

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Just as the stone was rolled away on that first Easter morn, we pray and beseech you to help us roll away the stones of deception that have for too long been in place. Shine the revealing, cleansing light of your Holy Spirit of Truth in all the dark corners to disinfect the wounds of your church and heal the Body of Christ.

Dear Lord, YOUR Love is the light that ever shines in the darkness of the tomb. Help us to burn away all that is not of you and, in so doing, make manifest your Kingdom here and now. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.


ABOVE: Mary C. and Ellen at New York event



At Right: He's known as The Warrior

Joe Byrnes of New York City at Good Friday 2010 Event for Advocates and Adult Victims of Pedophile Priests

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What Happened Last Week in Los Angeles?

Their eyes glazed, two reporters started angling their necks in another direction.

"I'll help any reporters who want help going into the files. There are thousands of pages of court documents about Catholic Priest sex crims in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, just two buildings down from here... just in the Superior Court building."

The TV and radio reporters were not listening. At the end of the Good Friday press event in L.A. I took the mic and first made the mistake of trying to talk off the top of my head, and was wandering all over bringing up three other topics, because this material, the crimes of pedopihle priests, is so convoluted and overlapping and multi-faceted.

We did end up with a good report on KNBC, maybe the others, I don't know. I went out. I have the KNBC report on VHS and my boss if I can corner her, can make me it a digital file, then I can post it. This might take me a while as we have real work again, that's why I am up at 4:00 AM on Tuesday wishing I had time to do a post right.

CNN packed up and left when they found out we hadn't arranged the press event on Good Friday in advance with the Archdiocese. I said, Why would I do that? I'm not doing PR for the Archdiocese. From now on Snap Los Angeles events are going to take place at federal buildings around town, and Congressional offices, etcetera. We are not going to arrange anything in advance with Roger and Tod.

The reporters who turn up for a media event like this are only interested in sound bytes. What am I even doing here, I realized as I was standing in the middle of it. I am contributing to this change in news reporting that I truly abhor.

My God, I'm turning into the Holly Hunter character from Broadcast News, I think I even used one of her exact lines just then.

The TV and radio reporters point their cameras, they want a good 1-2 minute report with visuals and ... sound bytes. This is not good PR, this is just PR with no substance. Not one of the guys at a press event like that is interested in going in depth on this issue.

We are a bit sleepy and wiped out from the whole thing. Just looking at the Pope exhausts me, usually I stay away from him, but he was all over the place last week, and City of Angels ended up posting a whole lot about pedophiles, instead of staying totally off the topic in honor of Holy Week as we had tried to do.

We had a pretty successful event in L.A. Good Friday, with news coverage from KTTV-Fox 11, KABC, KNBC, the two main news radio stations and two Hispanic language stations, plus a young girl from her college inhouse station. We got good coverage, I think.

Local L.A. SNAP activist Jim Robertson's relatives from Ireland were there. His cousin Tina was on camera, with an Irish brogue saying with feeling:

"Today is Good Friday a very important day in the Catholic Church, it’s the day we remember Christ’s suffering and his death. And what hurts me most is that we should be here today talking about all the suffering that goes on at the hands of the church today."

More projects are in the works among a group calling itself SNAP LA, to lobby for Federal investigations with U.S. Attorneys and the U.S. Congress.
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