The Chicago Archdiocesan offices aren't open on Saturdays, but that didn't stop Frank Douglas from stopping by with a box full of 20,000 pennies--one for each of the estimated 20,000 victims of sexual abuse by clergy in the United States.
Douglas is the national director of Send The Bishops a Message, which urges Catholics to withhold financial donations to the church to express their outrage about its handling of the sexual abuse scandals.
"If you feel that the bishops and the pope have done everything humanly possible to protect children from known and credibly accused sexual predators employed by the church, fine, but, if not, we urge you to send church officials a message of disapproval by dropping a penny in the collection plate each time it is passed in front of you," Douglas wrote on his blog.
Douglas was in town for the national conference of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The $200 donation is meant to start a fund for victims, he said.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the money was accepted by "a quizzical security guard," and the archdiocese did not immediately respond to calls for a response.
Following are the reports she filed during the conference:
