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NEW YORK, April 30, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Anthony DeStefano, the Executive Director of Priests for Life, has commented on the abuse scandal in a release entitled Memo to Catholics: Stop Playing Defense! DeStefano describes himself as “a lay person who has worked closely with the clergy for over a decade, and who has seen first-hand how heroically selfless and self-sacrificing our Roman Catholic priests truly are.”

While he acknowledges the horror of the crimes committed by guilty priests and stresses that they should be punished, he asserts that the media attacks on the church over this issue are motivated by more than concern for the victims. “While no one doubts the sincerity and anguish of the victims going through this crisis, all the indignant cries for justice emanating from the Church bashers in the media are a sham,” he writes.

DeStefano posits: “Sentencing guilty priests to long jail terms will never appease them, nor will a million apologies from the bishops or the Vatican. Nothing is going to mollify the hatred of those who are wielding their axes.” He explains that it is “because their true aim is to hurt the Church: to damage its credibility in order to reduce its ability to work effectively against the immorality of an ever-increasing Godless society; to discredit it so that the politically conservative influence it exerts in matters such as abortion, pornography and gay rights, is minimized. That is the real meaning of these attacks.”

See DeStefano’s full release at:  https://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-29-2002/0001716471&EDATE=