Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests targets Sen. John McCain

This is an interesting tid bit from Stephanie Innes of the Arizona Daily Star.

The national Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is angry at Sen. John McCain.

Members of the national group say they’ll be holding a media event in Phoenix on Tuesday, July 29, to demand that McCain fire Deal Hudson from his Catholics for McCain steering committee.

The SNAP protestations come shortly after a group called Catholics United, which leans left, also demanded that McCain dump Hudson. Catholics United says Hudson does not represent Catholic values.

The reason? A sex scandal…..

In 2004 the National Catholic Reporter revealed that Hudson had resigned his faculty post at Fordham University a decade earlier — in 1994 — after an 18-year-old student complained that he had sexual relations with her in his office after taking her to a party at a New York bar and getting her drunk.

Just months after Hudson left Fordham, he was hired as senior editor of Crisis, a conservative Catholic magazine. In 1995 he became editor and publisher.
And just a month after the National Catholic Reporter story broke, Hudson stepped down from a job with the Bush-Cheney campaign. He also resigned as publisher of Crisis.

It was national news back then, four years ago. Now, it’s news again.

Hudson is also being criticized for ‘brokering a deal’ between a meeting of conservative Catholics and San Antonio mega-preacher John Hagee.

Bill Donohue of the conservative Catholic League is incensed by the vitriol aimed at Hudson.

“Hudson has made several public statements of apology regarding his improper sexual encounter with a coed in 1994. What are we to do as Catholics—say it isn’t enough?,” Dononue wrote.

“Hudson and Hagee have paid their dues. It’s time everyone—especially Catholics—acknowledged it. Kudos to the McCain campaign for seeing through this phony effort and standing by Hudson.”

SNAP on the other hand refers to Hudson as a “wrongdoer.”

“We feel that when wrong doers are given positions of power it sends a very dangerous message to victims, a message that wrongdoers are rewarded and there is no point in reporting abuse since the predator is not punished,” a SNAP press release states.

The event will take place at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday outside the McCain Southwest Regional Headquarters at 5353 N. 16th Street, Phoenix, AZ

Article on line here...


I must say though - if Hudson were a Priest, he would not be involved in the activities he is now involved in. The thing about politics is that people have long memories....

In 2004, Hudson was gleeful about his role in costing the job of Ono Ekeh, a “low level employee” at the Secretariat for African-American Catholics, and father of three, who had hosted a “Catholics for Kerry” Internet forum. Hudson told NCR’s Feuerherd, “If you’re going to play in the sandbox, then you have to take the consequences of your public utterances and your public actions.”

Indeed Deal, and that is why states have "sex offender" registry's.