Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP, dies at 61

CHICAGO (AP) - Barbara Blaine, the founder and former president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has died.

The organization known as SNAP announced on its Facebook page that Blaine died Sunday following a recent cardiac event. She was 61.

In a statement, SNAP managing director Barbara Dorris praised Blaine's work with victims of clergy sexual abuse, adding that Blaine's "contributions to a safer society would be hard to overstate."

According to the organization's website, Blaine founded SNAP in 1988, years after she was abused as an 8th grader by a Toledo, Ohio, priest who taught at the Catholic school she attended.

She resigned in February. She did not give a reason, but Blaine and other SNAP officials were sued in January by a former employee.

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