UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jul. 17, 2017

On the NCR website this week, we will run a series of stories that will challenge our readers to look at the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by clergy from several different viewpoints: from the perspective of a victim/survivor, from the perspective of a convicted offender, from the perspective of a family member of a victim, and from the perspective of professional advocates and watchdogs. …

Wednesday and Thursday, we will run extensive interviews with Gilbert Gustafson and Susan Pavlak. Pavlak, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, was sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun, in the 1970s. She recounts her struggle to come into, as she describes it, “right relationship,” overcoming alcoholism and trauma from the abuse. Gustafson is a priest of the St. Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese who was convicted of…