UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
“How do you do it? How do you read about and respond to all that pain and corruption and betrayal, day after day?”
When I tell people what I do for a living, I often get some version of this question.
My response is usually: “This work is draining, but it’s also a privilege and an honor. It helps me heal. I meet tremendously compassionate and brave people. I get to watch them recover. I see criminals outed, ousted, prosecuted and kept away from kids. There are many rewards.”
And I often tell people that I usually manage, somehow, to see the glass as half full.
But not this time.
Last Friday, a journalist told me that Fr. Robert K. Larson passed away back on Aug. 27. But his Wichita Catholic supervisors kept this information secret until this convicted child molesting cleric was buried.
Fr. Larson’s name might sound familiar. He attracted national attention in 2002 when the Boston Globe and Wichita Eagle ran page one reports saying that five of Fr. Larson’s alleged victims took their own lives.
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