Wednesday, September 01, 2010

A story of clergy sexual abuse

A victim describes the aftermath of alleged abuse by a Catholic priest.

“I tried to work past it,” said the man, a father who works in law enforcement and as a young boy wanted to become a priest himself. “I just figured it was too late to do anything.”

He is one of two Humboldt County men who filed lawsuits last month accusing the Santa Rosa Diocese of fraud and negligence for hiring the Rev. Patrick Joseph McCabe and failing to disclose his sexual misconduct to parishioners in Eureka.

Rev. Patrick Joseph McCabe is accused of molesting two boys in St. Bernard Church in Eureka. McCabe was already a known pedophile priest when he was sent to Eureka.

An interesting take away from this article was the conviction of the victim to “take it to his grave.” His shame was so great that it took the public acknowledgement of McCabe as a known abuser before the victim could bring the allegations to light. How hard must it be for someone to bury this kind of pain for so long? How is this religion authentic? Where is Christ in all of this? The truth is, there is no God and therefore these acts are just the corrupt practices of men drunk on a power granted by mysticism. We give them power. We can take it away.