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	"Something Should Be Said for the Victims" By Jennifer Green The Ottawa Citizen April 7, 2010 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Something+should+said+victims/2759921/story.html OTTAWA — Anita Canty, 77, is a mother of five and grandmother of nine, who lives in the small village of Stirling, northwest of Belleville. She describes her parish priest at Belleville's St. Joseph's as a good guy, but she says the sex scandals in the global church have upset her. She was particularly infuriated to read Pope Benedict's refusal to be "intimidated by petty gossip." "I thought I'd croak. It's not petty gossip! When things blew up in Boston, it was 'oh, tut tut, it's just the media over there (and) the people lead such liberal lives.' Well, that really annoyed me. And now it's breaking worse in Germany. "I'm disturbed, I'm telling you. I don't know quite what to do or say. I'm certainly not a lettered person, I'm just an ordinary mother and grandmother who has been faithful and loyal. "But I do wish to state that in my opinion it's the misuse of the trust and power that (has) ... altered so many lives." Canty said she felt a particular grief for the mothers who reported sex abuse to church officials and were told to go to confession or go home to pray. "It's the insult to the victims, that, I think, is the most crucial thing of all. They were not heard, they were put aside, God love them. Their lives were ruined, and some of them by suicide. "Stand up and make an accounting, and stop saying, 'poor me, it's just the media.' And stop saying, 'I apologize.' Apology is fine and dandy -- (even though) it's far too late -- but something should be said for the victims. The victims were never, ever considered in the way they should have been." Canty says neither her nor her husband's faith has been shaken, although her husband has suggested they sit at the back door of the church so they can "walk if we have to." In an e-mail sent later to the Citizen, she said: "The credibility gap widens as some of the archbishops and cardinals rush to defend the Pope from the media frenzy. The truth is the abuses occurred for decades as well as imposed silence, secretly contrived cover-ups and payoffs regardless of the chronology of who was in charge when and where. "The determined focus of the hierarchy of the Church to protect the priests and the reputation of the Church took precedence over the abuse of minors and its long term consequences of tragic emotional loss of the gift of life and even, at times, suicides of some of the victims. ... Apologies are not enough. An accounting by the Pope for the Church's abuse of power and trust needs to be offered to ordinary people who are looking for answers, especially those of us who are trying to keep the faith." But the faith of Canty and her husband is unshaken. "Mainly we have a good feeling about God and ourselves spiritually. We do volunteer work for a young woman with cystic fibrosis and, my God, it gives us the joy of our lives ... so that's what counts, something good."
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