Reckoning Time for Catholics

A. M. New York
January 31, 2019

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/By%20Josmar%20Trujillo

A familiar name was eventually published along with dozens of Jesuit priests who’d taught in some of the city’s Catholic schools: my former religion teacher.

I graduated from the school in 2000. While I was never abused, the church abuse scandal hits me deep, not only as a graduate but also as a parent whose son attends the school. It has even made my mother, a devout Catholic, question why the church still holds on to archaic rules like not allowing women or married men to be priests, which she believes help foster an abusive environment.

Even though I am no longer a believer, the church has meaning for my life. As I wrote on this page last year, a Jesuit priest worked with my mom and others to support peasants and workers in Bolivia — a move that eventually cost him his life. Many priests were on the right side of history in Latin America during a period of death squads and political persecution.

That said, despite some of the efforts of the school and of Catholics in NYC to begin to take some accountability for abuse, the ways the church dragged its feet and covered up abuse scandals point to an institution that was focused more on self-preservation than justice for victims.