Steve Israel: Real Heroes of Archdiocese Sex Abuse Scandal — the Victims

By Steve Israel
Times Record Herald
May 2, 2019

https://www.recordonline.com/opinion/20190502/steve-israel-real-heroes-of-archdiocese-sex-abuse-scandal---victims

Imagine that you’re just a child, maybe 11, 12, 13 years old. You’re sexually abused by the man your family reveres so much — a priest — that they want you to be a priest like him. They’ve invited him for dinner, let him take you to Rye Playland and even let you spend the night at the rectory — where the priest abuses you.

For years you keep that terrible secret bottled up. After all, who’s going to take the word of a kid over the word of a priest?

But you start hearing that other priests are abusing other kids. They’re kids with families for whom the priests are such a big part of their lives that they let them take their sons on overnight trips to the Jersey shore. One family even gives one of those abusive priests a T-shirt that says “Trust Me, I’m a Father.”

You finally get the courage to speak the truth and face one of the most powerful institutions around, the Archdiocese of New York. You say that one of its priests is sexually abusing you.

The priest denies it, stands behind his white collar and says, “You’re ruining my life as a priest.” You don’t yet know that he’s been accused of abuse by other boys in other parishes. You don’t yet know what you and your family will soon learn — just by asking other boys — that he’s abused others in your parish and the Catholic school where he teaches.

You just know that church officials say it’s your word against his.

“And who’s going to believe you? He’s a priest and I’m just a kid,” says Port Jervis’ Patrick Westfall, who was abused in the 1970s by the late former priest Francis Stinner.

When word gets out that you’re accusing the priest of abuse, other church members don’t believe you. They accuse you and your family of attacking the church they love and where your family has worshiped for years.

This is what happened to Westfall. He was one of dozens of local boys who were victims of former priests like the late Edward Pipala and Stinner of Orange County — priests who were defrocked years after the abuse was first reported only because these boys and their families had the courage to speak out.