DETROIT (MI)
Church Militant
September 3, 2018
By Mark Crawford
I, as well as my younger brother, were sexually abused by my parish priest, Fr. Kenneth L. Martin of the archdiocese of Newark when I was 15, but the grooming process began much earlier. I suspect my younger brother was even younger when his sexual abuse began.
I grew up in a large, devout Catholic family who was very much involved in parish life, I aspired to become a priest from an early age and in fact spent two years in a college seminary program at a Salesian College in New Jersey, although I was part of the Franciscan Capuchin Fraternity that attended this college seminary program. What I experienced and witnessed in this seminary is another story, too much of the same.
My parish priest ingratiated himself into our family life beginning when I was in eighth grade. He spent many, many hours at my house several days a week. At first, he was like a father figure to me, directing my studies, giving me responsibilities and duties in the parish as well. He took me on trips throughout the country, but in 1978, on a trip to Colorado, a train trip he arranged almost a year in advance, we had bunk beds in a sleeper car.
Overnight he climbed into my bed and I awoke as he was fondling me. That’s when the sexual abuse began.
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