ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call
October 15, 2018
By Ed and Pat Fortney
When you realize that the whole dynamic and legacy of your family and grandchildren have been altered dramatically because of the actions of another, then and only then do you grieve the loss of what could have been.
Finding out that one of our daughters was abused was life altering for us.
Then years later, to find out that not only one but five of our children have been victims of a man we trusted — the Rev. Augustine Giella, who served at St. John the Evangelical Church in Enhaut, Dauphin County, for 5½ years in the 1980s — it alters the very fabric of your family and your family’s legacy for years to come.
We have experienced grief at its lowest depth. How do you survive that? How do you come to terms with the guilt as a parent? How do you grasp the failure of protecting your own children?
We hold onto our faith in God that he will move the mountains in the minds of Pennsylvania’s state senators. Right now they are our last hope.
The balance of justice for all victims lies in their hands. The day of the release of the state grand jury report (Aug. 14), we saw the pain of our children’s abuse being forced back into the forefront on those pages.
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