MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun
[with video]
By Lyle Moran, lmoran@lowellsun.com
Updated: 07/05/2013
LOWELL — Gary Bergeron publicly spoke about being sexually abused by the Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham, a former priest at St. Michael’s in Lowell, for the first time in 2002.
Since then, Bergeron has continued to be outspoken about the abuse he suffered as a child during a three-year period in the 1970s, and the need for the Catholic church and society to address the issue of clergy sexual abuse.
Bergeron, of Lowell, has written a book about his struggles called “Don’t Call Me a Victim: Faith, Hope & Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church,” in 2005. He has also co-founded a group called Survivors Voice to help adult survivors of child sexual abuse speak out. His latest project is a yet-to-be titled documentary about his life as a clergy sex-abuse survivor that he is working on at Lowell Telecommunications Corp.
The Sun recently caught up with Bergeron, 51, to find out what he hopes comes from his documentary he expects to show first in October, and how he thinks the Catholic Church is doing to address clergy sexual abuse.
Q: Why did you first decide to speak out about being abused by a priest?
A: When I found out my dad had been abused by Joe Birmingham, he told my brother and I that we suffered from the sin of his silence. I immediately thought about my son, who was 3. I decided that night that there was no way this was going to happen to my son. I was going to make sure the cycle in my family was stopped.
Q: How did speaking publicly about your story help you?
A: The value in it was understanding who I was. I was not a guy who needed to be running away all the time. I was not the guy who had to go from one relationship to another relationship. I was a family man. I was somebody who was not afraid to speak truth to power. I started to listen to my inner voice as opposed to everyone else’s voice. If I had not started talking about it, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.
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