Clergy Abuse Survivors Finding Their Voices, and Each Other

By Peter Smith
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 15, 2018

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2018/07/15/Catholic-priest-Clergy-abuse-survivors-grand-jury-diocese-of-Pittsburgh-Greensburg-Erie-Allentown-Harrisburg-Scranton/stories/201807140003?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1531668559

Jim VanSickle recalls the “long walk” into the room where members the 40th statewide grand jury waited to hear him.

“I was nervous, I was sweating, thinking, ‘Lord, give me the words that I need,’” recalled Mr. VanSickle, 55, of Coraopolis.

He sensed an assurance from that Lord, in whom he has retained faith in spite of the betrayals he felt from its purported ministers: “Just be true to yourself and your story.”

So he told his story. He testified how his trusted priest and high school English teacher mounted a humiliating, life-altering assault on his teenage body and innocence.