PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
He was 10 years old, the product of a devout Catholic family that worshipped at Holy Name Catholic Church in Ebensburg.
An altar boy, Brian Gergely should have been preoccupied with the task of assisting his priest with the rites of Mass. Instead, he was consumed with the idea of escaping the monster behind the black robe who sexually abused him in the sacristy and the confessional.
“I was standing in the sacristy and he pinned me to the desk. I was just a little guy,” Gergely said during an interview in March with The Guardian, recounting the violent abuse at the hands of Monsignor Francis McCaa.
“My parents were patrons,” Gergely said. “They were going door to door raising money for the church. The community put Monsignor McCaa on a pedestal.”
As an adult, Gergely shared his story of abuse with others — from his high school biology class, where he first broke the news of his abuse, to national and international media covering the worldwide clergy sex abuse scandal.
On Friday, Gergely, 46, took his own life. He hung himself. His father found him.
His friends, other survivors of sexual abuse and victims advocates point to the fact that his death comes just days after the state Senate voted in favor of a bill that reforms the state’s child sex crimes law.
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