By Barbara Dorris
The Pope “apologized” again, this time at the mass at St. Peter’s Square. SNAP’s response was simple. While words are a nice first step they are meaningless without actions. Peter and Joelle were standing in the square and responded to media from around the world. I went back to the hotel to be available there to reporters who did not find us in the square.
Peter Isely (from Wisconsin) and Joelle Casteix (from California) who represent SNAP in Rome this week take a well-need rest.
We did interviews with all the major US networks and many other news outlets from cities across the globe, for TV, Radio, newspapers, internet sites, etc.
Rome is an amazing city, so beautiful that after a day or two you run out of adjectives to describe what you are seeing. I wish I could tell you we have been sight-seeing or slipping off into little cafés to have amazing meals and linger with a cup of coffee and watch the world go by. No such luck. We’ve been extraordinarily busy. We have been attending events, answering calls, doing interviews, meeting survivors and eating whatever we could grab on the way.
I am new to SNAP….been a survivor for 35 yrs and victim of repeated sexual assaults by a priest while I was in highschool seminary at the age of 14. I never would have thought the Pope would side with these “monsters” and protect them. I question “infallability”.
Apologies, whether followed by action or inaction are meaningless to me anyway. An apology will never delete the memories of abuse I linger onto. It won’t solve my daily rituals of panic, anxiety, and depression. It won’t bring back my youth, and change the direction, that was a life – headed nowhere.
Furthermore, I am unconvinced that an apology from the Pope or his constituents is predicated upon true sorrow and remorse for the evil acts committed against, we victims, the many children who have been abuse, those who are presently being assualted, and unfortunately the many who will represent a new future of victimization that will call for the never-ending education and employment of professionals to deal with childhood abuse victims. How many are depressed because of abuse? How many have committed suicide because of abuse? How many will we never know about?
There is currently no end in sight and as-long-as ignorance sits atop of the foodchain in the Catholic Church, there will be more people like me looking for answers, non-stop wondering, “why?”
Recently, the Catholic Church published a book, “The Church and Pedophilia: An Open Wound,” to gain a better understanding of potential pedophile priests already in their ranks, to eliminate those predators before they become priests, and to safeguard children with a better understanding of “what to do if someone believes a child is in danger.” I could’ve written this book, in all of one page, with big bold black letters – CALL THE DAMN POLICE! I still ask for this question to be answered, “Why does any institution need a book, a policy, or a scientific study to educate themselves on what to do if you know a child is being abused?”