HUNTINGTON (IN)
OSV Newsweekly
October 3, 2018
By Gretchen R. Crowe
Every once in a while, I receive a piece of mail that stops me in my tracks. This was certainly the case when I received a recent letter from a reader not only disclosing the fact that she is the mother of four sons who were sexually abused by the same priest while growing up, but also describing the painful and lifelong ramifications of such abuse for her family.
All of her sons became addicted to alcohol, she writes, and three out of the four, to drugs. Two wanted to press charges against the abuser but ran up against the statute of limitations; and two won’t speak of the abuse at all.
Two of her children have left the Church completely — and one is no longer Christian. Of the two who remain Catholic, they only attend Mass occasionally, and they never had their children baptized.
One of her sons, she writes, remains very bitter.
“He has followed this type of news … closely over the years and calls it to my attention frequently,” she writes. “When I point out to him that for every pedophile priest there are 100 good priests, his response is that if they knew it was going on and did nothing, they’re just as guilty.”
The woman writes that this summer’s news of clergy sexual abuse made her feel “as if I’d been punched in the gut.” But, because of her experience, she said it was not unexpected.
There is much to unpack here about the long-term consequences of the scourge of clergy sexual abuse. My heart breaks for this woman and her family, and for the unnecessary and painful struggles that they have faced throughout their lives. They are members of the walking wounded.
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