UNITED STATES
Freedom from Religion Foundation
Freethought Today · Vol. 23 No. 2 March 2006
Joe McGee
My childhood and a good part of my life was stolen by a pervert masquerading as a priest.
Once, at a motivational meeting about 20 years ago, I heard the speaker make a statement that really rocked me. He said, “A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you anyway.” Most people there laughed, but I felt a twinge of pain. My friends, and even my wife, did not know my deepest, darkest secret.
Not too long after that, I heard someone make the profound statement: “We are as sick as our secrets.” That also made my stomach do flip-flops.
I believe this article is long overdue. About eight or nine years ago, there was an article about me in the Denver Post, but I was anonymous in that one because I still was too afraid to put my name to my story. However, my story was published in the Denver Post on Dec. 18, 2005, with all the names and the facts. It took 50 years to summon up the courage to tell the truth.
My motive now is to try to create a little more awareness on the subject of how a person feels who has been severely abused by someone whom they believed to be next best to God/Jesus. This business of the clergy sexually molesting the faithful is nothing new. It has been going on for centuries. The hierarchy of the church has had so much power, to the point of even threatening people with excommunication, if they dared talk about priests molesting the faithful. Of course, most of the hierarchy haven’t used that tactic much for about the last 20 years. But it did work very well for them for a long time, because all good Catholics knew that excommunication from the church was a sure ticket to everlasting hell. And, if you are a good Catholic, you’re not going to take that chance. Just get back in line and keep your mouth shut if you want a shot at heaven.
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