Group uses controversial tactics in its protests

Some abuse victims disagree with the protests.
CORONA, Calif. (AP) -- The leafletting outside St. Matthew Catholic Church started well on a recent Sunday, with some parishioners accepting the brochures about clergy abuse being handed out by people who said they were abused by priests.
Then one woman standing on a church balcony screamed at the demonstrators "You're evil!" and a man made an obscene gesture at them. The parish called police, who told the protesters they couldn't leaflet without a city permit.
The angry reaction came as no surprise to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. Since the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Roman Catholic church blew up in 2002, SNAP has often stepped forward to speak for victims.
While many victims have embraced SNAP as a support group and a means to win long-overdue justice, the group's tactics have alienated other Catholics and even some of the very people it hopes to help.
Some abuse victims say the group is too angry and confrontational, while others insist it's not activist enough. Still others fault SNAP for its close relationship with clergy abuse attorneys, saying the link fuels perceptions that victims are only after the church's money.
The attitudes reflect deep divisions among victims over how to proceed now that the first wave of the scandal has subsided. The question has profound significance for victims, many of whom will never see their molesters prosecuted because of statutes of limitations.
"This issue drives to the core of who you are -- it's not like anything else in the world," said Mary Ryan, an alleged abuse victim from Rhode Island. "It's messy."
Group's start
SNAP was started by Chicago social worker and abuse victim Barbara Blaine in 1989 and had 1,800 members, six active chapters and an annual budget of $2,000 until early 2002, when the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston and spread across the nation. The group now has 5,000 members, 60 active chapters and an annual budget of $250,000, with five paid staff members.
The growth gave SNAP clout in the national discourse on clergy abuse.
Among other actions, SNAP has demonstrated each of the last three years outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., when bishops held their annual meetings there. Members routinely picket diocesan headquarters and leaflet churches to spread the word about abuse.
Mary Grant, who coordinates SNAP actions across Southern California, said the group's activism has helped identify and remove molester priests. For example, she said, alleged victims of two Los Angeles priests who now face criminal investigations came forward after hearing about SNAP in the news.
"Some don't want to be public and that's fine," Grant said. "But we've literally found thousands of victims by standing outside parishes."
SNAP members said they want accountability and healing and believe their approach is the best way to achieve that. Their strategy is different from other support groups such as The Linkup, which has reached out to bishops and religious orders on addressing abuse.
Ninety percent of SNAP's work goes on behind closed doors, its leaders say.
Making connections
Through group sessions coordinated by SNAP, 45-year-old Esther Miller met another alleged victim of the same priest after thinking for years that she was his only target.
Learning she wasn't alone made her realize "I wasn't really crazy and I wasn't making this up," said Miller, a contract administrator from Seal Beach.
The group's public tactics, however, have irked some victims and led the Rev. Joseph Alzugaray, a pastor in Napa, to file a libel lawsuit.
SNAP had circulated pamphlets alluding to the fact that Alzugaray was under investigation for alleged molestation. He denied the allegations and no criminal charges have been filed. In his lawsuit, Alzugaray said SNAP funnels potential plaintiffs to a handful of lawyers who donate tens of thousands of dollars to the organization.
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