Leader of abuse victims quits

AUGUSTA – Cynthia Desrosiers, who organized victims of clerical sexual abuse in Maine, resigned Monday as regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Desrosiers, herself a victim, became involved with the survivors’ group in 1994, but her role had grown since the clerical abuse scandal broke nationally in January. In the last four months, Desrosiers has talked to 80 victims, most of whom are Maine residents, she said.

“It is simply time for me to move on,” she said. “I deserve time to live without the issue of clergy abuse occupying so much of my personal life.”

Desrosiers, of Augusta, pushed for a 1997 law that required leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland to report abuse allegations to civil authorities.

In 1998, Desrosiers reached a $527,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed against the Rev. Robert Kelley, whom she said abused her as a 5-year-old child in Southbridge, Mass., in the late 1960s.

More recently, she was instrumental in organizing a June meeting between Bishop Joseph Gerry and 12 abuse victims. It is unclear whether there will be more listening sessions with diocese officials, she said.