I think this quote is something we all need to remind ourselves of,: “On particularly rough days when I’m sure I can’t possibly endure, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100%. And that’s pretty good.”

Of course not everyone has endured. Suicide is an attractive option. But ultimately it is not an answer or solution at all. You need to have life to endure, to overcome and to ultimately thrive. It really seems that the Church has done everything it can do to keep the victims from overcoming the many negative effects of clergy sexual abuse.

What do we want? To be acknowledged, to grasp that it was evil that we came in contact with and for some of us that evil has had insidious consequences. STOP ATTACKING US, STOP ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO ATTACK US! Stop blaming everyone but yourselves. Stop hiding behind what was “known” about molesters back then, (common sense tells you that moving a priest who abused a child/children to another situation that invites more abuse is STUPID!). Work with and for us.

Since it was evil that we encountered in the priesthood why is it that you cannot see that the insidiousness did turn many people against the Church? There are complaints from the Church that anti-Catholic sentiment is to blame. Bull… God is God and it wasn’t God that did this. It wasn’t enemies of the Church that did this. Ultimately it was lay-people working for the Church, priests and bishops who proved to be the real enemies of the Church.

How long has this been going on now? Do we have to wait for all the perpetrators and all the enablers to die off?