Officials of a church in Jeffersonville, Indiana were criticised by a priest sex-abuse victims' group for requesting prayers for its late pastor who was accused of child molestation.
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called the First Christian Church's decision "stunningly callous."
"Shame on them," he said, according to the Courier Journal.
The Office of the Attorney General of Kentucky announced last month the arrest of Pastor David James Brown, 46, in Frankfort for soliciting sex with a minor.
He was charged with one count of prohibited use of an electronic communication system to procure a minor for a sex offence.
The minor was an undercover investigator contacted by Brown who sent him a message through a messaging app inviting him to engage in sex acts with him.
When he was arrested, Brown told investigators that he was an Indiana resident and head pastor of the church. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
Last June 29, Brown's body was found by police on a property of a storage unit in Atlanta, Georgia, a victim of an apparent suicide.
Chad Boseker, First Christian's youth minister, released a statement following the pastor's death asking for prayers for Brown's family and for the church congregation.
Clohessy said the victims should be reached out as well.
"Boseker and other church staff should be aggressively urging others who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups in their congregation to call law enforcement, so that any church staff who may have ignored or concealed child sex abuse might be charged, convicted and punished," said Clohessy. "That's the best way to deter irresponsible and self-serving actions by employers in future abuse cases."
He urged people with information on child sex crimes to report them to the police.
"This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface," said Clohessy.
