When Clergy Sexual Abuse Becomes Personal



The retired lead prosecutor in the investigation of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania's Catholic Churches had sexual abuse very close to him as a child. While he, himself, did not suffer from actual abuse the boys he grew up with did. They hated to see the end of a basketball game come because they did not know which would be selected by the Catholic coach. Some boys, he recalled, even began to shake.

This took place in a Pennsylvania Catholic Grade School whose Principal was a priest. Boys complained to the priest about the coach. Nothing was done. The prosecutor says he now knows sexual abuse in Catholic schools and churches was going on in several places in Pennsylvania. A Grand Jury just released hundreds of pages of testimony.

One of the ironies of theses stories is that there are Catholics who are angry this truth is coming out. When the prosecutor, still a practicing Catholic, released to the press the intention to investigate the Church he experienced hisses and catcalls when he attended his own church. Obviously there was many church members who did not want this abuse investigated.

Everyone agrees there is abuse in every profession. Only the clergy, however, claim to be experts on sin. By declaring themselves to know more about sin than the people they serve they have a power over victims other professionals do not. That is why the clergy abuse story is given so much press.

With several states now beginning to investigate Catholic records it is a good bet there will be stories for a long time.

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