For immediate release:
Monday, August, 16, 2004

For more information:
Landa Mauriello-Vernon, SNAP CT Director, 203-687-8072 cell
David Clohessy of St. Louis, National Director (314) 566-9790 cell
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, President (312) 399-4747 cell

Sex Abuse Victims Want To Speak To Nuns’ Group
Support Group Rejected by National Sisters’ Organization
Local Woman Who Was Molested Plans To Go Anyway

A Hamden woman who was sexually abused by a nun will travel this week to Texas where hundreds of Catholic sisters will meet. Her goal: to prod the nuns to respond sensitively to other victims and work to prevent future abuse.

Landa Mauriello-Vernon, 30, was sexually abused and assaulted by a Catholic nun in Hamden, CT when she was 17 years old. The abuse took place in the 1990's at a private, all-girls Catholic school. In the past 6 months, Mauriello-Vernon has become a leader in SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the nation’s largest and oldest self-help group for men and women wounded by clergy.

Last month, at a SNAP news conference in Silver Spring, MD, Landa publicly urged the largest national organization of nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) to allow she and other victims to address the body. The LCWR meets in Fort Worth TX starting this Thursday.

“We just wanted our voices to be heard, just 30 minutes of their time,” said Mauriello-Vernon. “But we were rejected. So we’re going anyway and will do whatever we can to bring public attention to this horror and try to enable victims still trapped in secrecy and shame to find us and start the road to healing.”

"Our group works to help victims recover and help prevent future abuse. We hoped the nuns would want to hear of our efforts and cooperate with us," said SNAP president Barbara Blaine of Chicago. "From our point of view, it's still not too late. Out of respect for victims' suffering, we hope the nuns will make a last minute change and let these brave men and women speak."

In response to SNAP’s invitation, LCWR leaders did agree to meet with a small group of victims later this fall. But we obviously feel it would be more productive and healing if we could talk with 400 nuns at once now, rather than 4 nuns at some undetermined time and place this fall,” said David Clohessy, National Directory in St. Louis, MO.

SNAP, a support group, was founded in 1989 in Chicago. It now has more than 4,600 members in virtually every state, and monthly support group meetings in 54 cities.