And like Weinstein, the clergy abuse scandal featured a larger-than-life character who resigned in disgrace: Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law. The revelations have reopened wounds for clergy abuse victims who tried to raise the national consciousness about the dangers of complicity by exposing their trauma to the nation. Most of the clergy victims were adults when they came forward but were children when the abuse happened. Today, there seems to be less resistance to accepting these stories, possibly because the clergy abuse scandal increased public awareness that abuse can hide anywhere and an abuser can be anyone, said Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk who has written several books on clergy abuse and is an expert in the field. “The truth really is freeing.”Those who have lived the clergy abuse scandal, however, know this moment of public consciousness could vanish as quickly as it came.

Source: National Post December 22, 2017 09:00 UTC