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	Hundreds of Priests Hear Victims' Tales of Molestation By Maryclaire Dale Associated Press September 16, 2006 http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-09162006-713240.html Wynnewood, Pa. - Victims of priest sexual abuse came forward Friday with sometimes graphic accounts of molestation and rape, addressing hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in what some view as a small but hopeful step by the archdiocese to face its past. Victoria Windsor Cubberly spoke of repeated abuse by more than one priest, and the suicidal thoughts and nightmares she suffers as a result. A woman named Grace talked about the abuse of her two sons - now adults - and the lingering trauma it inflicted on their entire family. "How did I not know? How did I not see it?" said Grace, who did not give her last name and was not fully identified by the archdiocese. "I will carry these questions until I die." Cardinal Justin Rigali, who convened the unusual forum at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, said that while many priests have read newspaper accounts about victims of abuse, they need to listen to the stories as well. "It is extremely important for us to hear their stories firsthand so that we may see the human face and hear the human voice," he said. About 330 priests and a handful of lay people gathered at the seminary, where victims spoke in a small auditorium just a few feet from the cardinal and his top aides. The priests were riveted by the speakers, who challenged Rigali to offer victims more help, including financial compensation. Cubberly graphically described being raped as a girl by one priest in a rectory office. She later spoke of abuse suffered at the hands of two more clergymen. "There are few people who want to hear my story - it's just too hard to hear," Cubberly said. Grace described a priest who regularly visited her family's house in what she said was a concerted effort to gain the trust of her and her husband. The priest - whom she later referred to as a "man from the devil" - then used that trust to abuse her children. Grace said the hands the priest used to consecrate the body and blood of Christ were "the same hands he used to violate my sons." That statement anguished Monsignor David Benz. "It was like sticking a knife in my heart," Benz, of St. Philomena church in Lansdowne, said after the forum. Grace also read a letter from her older son, now in prison, describing how he dreaded seeing the priest's car pull up to their house. After taking the son to the priory and abusing him, the priest would bring him back home and have a drink at the kitchen table. "It was like he was celebrating what he did to me," the son said in the letter. Abuse victim Edward Morris, 44, told the priests that the church has lost generations of followers because of the crimes committed by clergy. All three speakers said they came from very devout Catholic families, and that it was hard for them to report the abuse. "I wanted so badly to be the good little Catholic girl who was supposed to please the priests," Cubberly said. The 90-minute event was closed to the public, but video was streamed live on the archdiocese's Web site. Afterward, the priests attended a prayer service at nearby St. Martin's Chapel. Rigali did not answer questions. A year ago, lawyers for the archdiocese attacked a Philadelphia grand jury report on widespread priest abuse, calling it "a vile, mean-spirited diatribe." The report accused church leaders of covering up decades of abuse by at least 63 priests. Rigali came to Philadelphia in 2003. The Rev. Steve Katziner of St. Ephrem church in Bensalem said after the forum that he knew one of the priests accused by Cubberly, and that what she described was "horrible and devastating." He blamed "the old-boys network" within the archdiocese for the cover-up, saying they were "protecting the reputation of the church and protecting the financial solvency of the church." But Katziner said the forum was a step in the right direction. "I hope this is part of a healing for the priesthood - a purification - where things don't get covered up," Katziner said.
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