Catholic Church Won’t Curb Sexual Abuse, Group Claims : Religion: Organization urges victims to report molestation by priests to other authorities first.

Warning of retaliation and bad faith by the Roman Catholic Church, a nationwide organization of victims of sexual abuse by priests urged other victims Monday not to report the offenses to the church.

Instead, the group--including an Anaheim woman who said she was abused as a 13-year-old--said victims should take their complaints to law enforcement authorities, attorneys, counselors or family members.

In a Chicago press conference, the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said that church authorities could not be trusted to investigate their own.

In other cases, the victims charged that the church had retaliated against them by revealing their names without permission or by filing countersuits.

“We are here with a warning to other victims. Learn from our pain. Do not report your abuse to church authorities,” said Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP.

The group said it will attend the June 17-19 meeting in New Orleans of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to ask for a pledge that the church will not publicly attack people who try to expose such abuse.

The recommendation comes at a time when the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have sought to step up their response to sexual abuse by the clergy.

But the recommendation by the survivors group was questioned by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles.

“I don’t find it helpful. In fact, I’m puzzled by it,” Mahony said. “Maybe some of it comes out of what some of these people experienced 15, 20 or 25 years ago. But that is not the reality today whatsoever. . . . We move so quickly to respond to that whole spectrum of needs.”

But Mary Staggs, a 30-year-old Anaheim woman who said she was sexually molested repeatedly by a priest beginning when she was 13, said Monday that the priest who allegedly abused her is now the pastor of a large parish. She said the church reached a settlement with her in 1991, but she declined to state the sum.

“I’m being contacted by many survivors in Orange County who have made reports to the bishops and the bishops are still rebuffing them,” she said in a telephone interview from Chicago.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Orange said “the (local) bishop has made it clear that civil and church law will be followed and must be followed, and we will take all the appropriate actions (to investigate), with the realization that there can be false accusations in these matters.”

Msgr. Lawrence J. Baird, the diocesan communications director, said that the Diocese of Orange has adopted recommendations set forth last year by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops for handling sexual abuse allegations.

Church officials shall “comply with the obligations of civil law as regards reporting of the incident and cooperating with the investigation,” one of the guidelines states.

“We scrupulously follow that,” Baird said. “In this diocese, we just wouldn’t think of operating any other way.”

The diocese suspended Father Richard T. Coughlin earlier this year after five men alleged that he molested them as youths more than a decade ago. Coughlin has denied any wrongdoing. The diocese has also settled at least three lawsuits since 1988 filed by people who claimed to have been molested.

Times researcher Tracy Shryer contributed to this story from Chicago. Stammer reported from Los Angeles.