Predator Priests

I will not be reading the full report on the abuses committed by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania during the last 70 years.  The details I've already heard on the news sicken me--the scope of the depravity is shocking.  Part of me is glad that I retain my capacity to be shocked at the evidence of evil working in the world.  Part of me is angry that there's still so much evil in the world waiting to shock me.

While hearing about abuses by individual priests would be bad enough, but not exactly newsworthy anymore, sadly, the reports of the networks created for the purpose of abuse is horrifying.  At one point during the news cycle where the story broke, I thought, if you read this as a plot in a work of fiction, you would say, no, that can't happen in the real world.  And yet, it did.

The larger story is the abuse of power and the networks of power that kept the abusers in positions where they could prey on children.  I try to think of the larger good that can come out of this:  in many settings where adults work with children, there are much more rigorous regulations to try to ensure that this kind of abuse can't happen to a new generation of children.  We are a society that no longer gives certain types of people--church workers, teachers, doctors--the benefit of the doubt, the assumption that they could never hurt someone.

But oh, how this story breaks my heart, over and over again.  I think of the huge swath of damage left in the wake of those priests--all of those victims!  And not just the victims, but the families of the victims.  I think of all the good church workers who are now seen through this ugly lens, all the good in the world that won't be done, because trust has been broken.

As my heart breaks, I offer several prayers.  One, of course, is a prayer for all the victims.  But I also pray for the priests, for the broken, damaged people who could do these things.  I pray for all the victims we haven't heard from yet, both those who were victimized in the past and for those who are still being hurt.  I pray for all of us who work with children--let our actions never hurt.  I pray for everyone who hears these stories and assumes that all church folk are like those predator priests.  I pray for the courage to keep being a light in the world where evil often seems to be in control.