Church Abuse Survivor Speaking out after Settlement

NECN
September 15, 2013

http://www.necn.com/09/15/13/Church-abuse-survivor-speaking-out-after/landing.html?blockID=852493&feedID=11106

[with video]

(NECN) - A survivor of abuse at the hands of a church choir director is speaking out after receiving a settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston.

Hervay Gerard says the director, Emmett O'Brien, began abusing him back in the 1960s when he was 10 years old, and the abuse continued for years.

He says he hopes talking about this case will give courage to other victims of sexual abuse.

"It's time for the church to stop condoning criminal activity by keeping quiet about it. It's time to let the victims heal by acknowledging that they have responsibility for what happened 40 years ago," Gerard says.

Boston Archdiocese sent a message that was read this weekend. It said in part, "These shameful and disturbing violations of so long ago, as well as the often terribly inadequate and insufficient responses to these misdeeds, need to be brought out of the shadows and darkness and into the light."