Every once in a while I write to a reporter, which is what I am doing today because Stephen Calleja’s article about standing up to a priest who was giving a talk about journalists and having the nerve to confront the priest paedophilia scandal, really struck a chord (“Yes to divorce, no to child abuse”, TMIS, 8 May).
I was about 15 or 16 years old when I was offended by a priest shoving Vietnam down our throats, just because he could. We were his unsympathetic audience attending Mass. I was so upset that I went back to the sacristy after Mass to give him a piece of my mind. Now remember I was only 15 or 16, female, and this was around 1964, when most teenagers wouldn’t think of standing up to priests. I was met at the door by our senior pastor, who was visibly annoyed with me being there, because someone else had beaten me to the punch.
Two men were having a heated, yelling discussion behind the cracked door of the sacristy. A middle-aged man was in the sacristy with this priest who had given the sermon, and it sounded like they were about to punch each other out. The senior pastor asked why I was there, and I bravely told him although I was shaking with fear, thinking all the time, “What if he tells my parents!” He sternly told me to go home, because the man in the sacristy “was taking care of him!”
Many years later, it was discovered that the senior pastor as well as two of his subordinates had committed proven acts of paedophilia, which wasn’t uncommon because we lived in New Mexico, the home of the Paraclete Centre, a “Rehab centre for (supposed) Alcoholic Priests”, who were really paedophiles. Since paedophilia was such a big issue in our parishes in New Mexico, due to the “graduates” of the Paraclete’s Paedophile Centre who were released in our New Mexico parishes, I have often wondered how and why parents of the many abused children didn’t stand up to priests during Mass!
Since journalists have taken on this issue only recently, the reaction of the majority of the laity over the last 15 years of the priest paedophilia scandal has been really disheartening. It gladdened my soul to hear of one story of a journalist, who wasn’t afraid to do so! It’s too bad that you weren’t joined by other members of the laity, but that would have been too much to expect from people who have been trained to be obedient sheep!
In my own immediate and extended family, it was discovered that six of my relatives had been abused in one form or another by priests.
This issue of priest paedophilia has absolutely enraged me, so much so that I can’t even think of going near a Catholic Church. Perhaps to be a Catholic today one needs to practise “Cognitive Dissonance” by just robotically showing up at church on Sunday, or possibly all “The Thinking Catholics” have left the Church. There has to be some explanation for their disinterest!
Stay in the fight! You’re a much-needed voice! May God bless your work.
Jeannie Guzman
USA