Michael Boyd

Beginnings of SNAP's work in Tennessee

The story of the diocese about Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell was the genesis of SNAP of Tennessee.

"When I saw the disconnect between what was revealed at O'Connell's resignation and what was allowed to become the narrative believed by the people in the pews of the diocese of Knoxville, I knew there was a cover-up," says Susan Vance, SNAP of Tennessee's founder. "I started SNAP of Tennessee because of the incongruous behavior of Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz, his vicar general Xavier Mankel, and his Chancellor and communications director, Father (now bishop) James "Vann" Johnston.

It started at the grassroots level

Vance asked at a parish meeting that the name of O 'Connell be taken down from the St. Mary's new building dedicated to O'Connell, the Bishop O'Connell Family Life Center. There was immediate outcry. There were statements of "He was such a good man. Can't we just forget this?" Other such inane statements were heard throughout the next months including the statement that many believed that O'Connell really did not molest. They said that he just said he molested so he wouldn't embarrass the men who had brought the allegations. Such ingrained resistance to the truth was heard in all corners of the diocese of Knoxville. Without the initiative of Bishop Kurtz to stop this freight train from going any further down the wrong track, these lies became the narrative believed by the people and heard by our children. Any victim of O'Connell while he was bishop of Knoxville would have been silenced by this tidal wave of adults who believed the lies.

No response is a red flag

The meeting at St. Mary's Oak Ridge at which Vance had requested the removal of the name of O'Connell was in late March or early April. Nothing had been done by December 13. 2002 when Cardinal Law resigned. Vance faxed the local media about the name of a pedophile still on the building in Oak Ridge and that they could tie that story to the resignation of O'Connell's friend, Cardinal Bernard Law. Thus began the public debate in the media and elsewhere about removing the name.'

Bishop Joseph Kurtz would not make a public statement or take a definitive stand on the issue. His silence spoke volumes about what the diocese was going for - a re-Oconnellization of the diocese where O'Connell would be turned from sinner-to-saint or "good man just misunderstood." "I decided that I had to find out what was going on to make the bishop and the priests have such a strange and incomprehensible response to a pedophile," says Vance. "It could not have been an accident. It had to be orchestrated and carried out masterfully by Bishop Kurtz, Father Xavier Mankel, and Father James "Vann" Johnston."

It was Kurtz/Mankel/Johnston ambivalence and impotence in this matter that led to the formation of SNAP. It was their crime of silence that hurt all the victims of O'Connell who were molested by him in Knoxville while he was bishop. An entire millennial generation is owed an apology from every adult who let this happen, not just Kurtz/Mankel/Johnston but all of the adults who let these men cloud their minds with absurd ideas about the actions of pedophile, Anthony J. O'Connell.