St. Louis, Mo., Nov 27, 2017 / 20:19 pm
An advocacy group has issued an apology to a St. Louis priest for "any false or inaccurate statements" regarding allegations of abuse, after criminal charges against him were dropped and subsequent lawsuits were settled or dismissed.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis published the apology from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) on Monday.
"The SNAP defendants never want to see anyone falsely accused of a crime. Admittedly, false reports of clergy sexual abuse do occur. The SNAP defendants have no personal knowledge as to the complaints against Fr. Joseph Jiang and acknowledge that all matters and claims against Fr. Jiang have either been dismissed or adjudicated in favor of Fr. Jiang," the group stated.
SNAP also apologized for the harm that false accusations can cause to the priest as well as to the Catholic Church as a whole.