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	The Column I Wish I'd Written By Henry Briggs Main Line May 11, 2011 http://mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2011/05/11/main_line_suburban_life/opinion/doc4dca8e0a58728055422760.txt Several weeks ago I expressed outrage at Catholic priests and Catholic leaders (up to the Pope) – grownups – who either committed or covered up child abuse and molestation in the church. Two reader comments convinced me that I (and everyone else who applauded Philadelphia DA Seth Williams for taking on the Catholic Church and canon law) missed the heart of the story: the children themselves. When you look at the Catholic Church through the eyes of these two children, now fully grown, you see the fear and the pain – the taking of childhood – by grownups. “I am 51 years old and I knew (one of the suspended priests) as a child and teenager,” says one person who commented anonymously on my column. “He used to go to the rectory every day after school and visit the priests. All he wanted all his life was to be a priest. It’s all he ever talked about.” Some kids want to be firemen or astronauts. This kid wanted to be a priest. There is innocence and hope in that wish. It becomes a weapon of abuse. “Everybody knew he was being molested at the rectory. We knew this as children,” the witness continues. “Everybody called him Sweet Pete to his face and teased him about being gay with the priests.” Abused by the priests, the boy is rejected by his peers. Goodbye hope; hello horror. And the impact on the other child, the witness? Bitter, long-term anger... “This was in the ’60s-early ’70s. Anybody that tries to claim they are shocked by this abuse must be very, very naive. My parents told me never let a priest near you. Never be alone with a priest. This is not new. Why is everybody trying to act so shocked about it. Any parent that encourages their kid to be an altar boy or allows their kid to be alone with priests is guilty of child abuse. You should know better. Now, maybe that the truth is in the newspaper the idiot parents will stop sacrificing their own children. Shame on any parent that sends their kids to Catholic school. You disgust me with your feigned shock.” ...and final condemnation. “You knew what was going on; you had to know,“ he says to all parents. “I knew in 1968 and I was only 10 years old.” Some may doubt the sincerity of his comment, in spite of the obvious emotion and intensity of his writing, because of his anonymity. I don’t. Some truth can only be told from behind the safety of anonymity. The comment from the second reader (witness) describes an older and thus stronger child. “As a former Roman Catholic (first grade through college) I can tell you about creepy priests”, he writes in an e-mail to me, also asking for anonymity. “The only thing that kept me from being abused was... grace. Apparently I was blessed with the balls to say, ‘Touch me and I will kill you.” Which I did on three occasions in high school. Not everyone was so fortunate and this was in the ’60s. So thanks for keeping the spotlight white-hot in this issue. “I made a song about a guidance counselor. We called him ‘The Moat’ because when you went into his office there was no getting out. “Five foot two, eyes of blue, He shakes your hand; it sticks like glue. Has anybody seen the moat? He does the cutest tricks With his six octopus hands When you walk in, that’s the end Simply ’cause they’re in your pants! “Your column has really gotten me thinking. There is a dark side to my youthful humor. When you are a young Catholic boy coming up against an institution that looks the other way on abusers I felt overwhelmed, and humor and bravado were my (maladaptive) coping mechanisms. Right now it all makes me feel very sad. You can use that... anonymously. “And I guess one of the reasons I left the Catholic Church for another Christian denomination is that I never let my disappointment in the Catholic Church get in the way of my faith.” When I look at the Catholic Church through the eyes of children, I can only wonder why Seth Williams was the first grownup to come to their rescue by actually holding other grownups accountable. That’s the column I wish I’d written.
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