Wilderness...

Photos contributed by the Pinedale Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is a public domain image

Last night I watched a show from the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) called Frontline.  The piece was the story of how a Catholic priest and his friend who posed as a priest, came to St. Michaels Alaska and supposedly worked among the Native people there.  I say "supposedly worked", because in reality, the entire generation of young people were abused: 100% of the children in the village.  Girls and boys who are now women and men.  It happened in the 1970s.  Horrendous things happened and then the abuse spread it's reach into families.  One boy told his father, and as a result of telling the truth, the boy was beaten, and then later, his brother was shot by his father, and died in the boy's arms.

One woman finally brought a lawsuit, and although in the beginning, the Catholic church ignored the accusations, the case was won in court.  As part of the settlement the bishop was to go and apologize to the people in that particular diocese.  We see his visit to the people of that village, and hear him say:  I'm sorry, please forgive me for any pain which has come to you because of the church.  We saw these adults who were abused as children, heard some of their stories, and heard the ways this cruelty has so deeply and irreparably damaged their lives.

Winning the lawsuit didn't fix the pain.  The people want to move on and leave it behind them...but imagine, an entire village suffering from complex post traumatic stress disorder.  (I wonder why in the world the psychiatric community calls this a disorder?   The symptoms follow severe trauma.  All that pain leaks out when it gets triggered.  And when there is a large amount of pain, it goes on and on and on.)

I confess to a certain envy...there is no one who will ever apologize to me for the years of abuse.  No one who will acknowledge the pain they have caused.  But the reality is, that even in this case, it's just the institution that is apologizing, not the perpetrators.  At least it is something.  I do think the church as a whole...not just the Catholic church, should be asking forgiveness of victims and acknowledging the conspiracy of silence and denial which has gone on and on and on.  

Did you know that 99.9% of the men and women in our prison system were sexually abused as children?

There has to be a way to change the way children are treated.  There has to be a way to heal the people who carry so much grief.  It is their right to be offered healing.  There is never full justice in this world.  But surely we can ask forgiveness for everyday kinds of things, so the small doesn't become larger and eventually erupt into abuse.  God forbid that this simply be inevitable...