Anyone who has been hurt or abused. . .whether it was by a priest, an authority figure, or a family member. . .deserves our prayers and help.
But there appear to be those neo-Donatists who simply cannot believe that there could ever be a “different way” of looking at things “before the fact”.
Yes, abuse is a crime.
BUT. . .and I am NOT just talking the RC here–on the whole, not “incident by incident”, but on the average, 40 years ago people, while they certainly knew that abuse was wrong, could and did react differently than they do today.
As an example, 50 years ago a single woman who became pregnant was often ostracized, reviled, or shunned by the community. NOW she is often lauded, praised, and elevated practically to sainthood by the community. --and before you FLAME, note I say “often”. 50 years ago there were a FEW people who went “against the majority”, and TODAY there are a FEW who go “against the majority”–but what the majority DOES, SAYS, and THINKS has changed VERY MUCH in those 50 years.
So 40 years ago maybe a child, a parent, a priest or a bishop decided NOT to press charges. NOT because they were trying to cover up for the PERP, but because they were trying, believe it or not, to protect the victim.
I can assure you that even in these oh-so-enlightened times, if you aren’t in the “majority” (example, you were molested not by a priest, but by a father or uncle), and it “comes out” in public, there are still plenty of people who will blame you, who will judge YOU. . .even if you were 3, not 16. And 40 years ago? Even the psychiatrists (you know, the ones who were still INSISTING then that these people could be cured, and SHOULD be sent back and exposed to MORE children so that they could FACE THEIR DEMONS and WIN) did not believe most abused children, did not recognize child depression and–here’s another one for the books–thought that abused children were “resilient” enough to be able to escape relatively “unscathed” from most one-time “encounters” which is what the majority of these crimes were.
I know it is difficult, but please try to remember that the people 30 and 40 years ago did NOT have the knowledge that we have today. It would be like living 20 years from now and wondering why on EARTH the people in New Orleans had not “prepared” for Hurricane Katrina, thinking that it was totally an AVOIDABLE hurricane, and blaming all the victims for criminal NEGLECT in not having prepared for the hurricane, because perhaps 20 years from now people WILL be able to evacuate more quickly, will have technology capable of getting people out of harms’ way, and people then will be as clueless about people NOW as some are today about people living 20 years or more ago.
