Another victim of clerical abuse
By Tom Hennessy Long Beach Press-Telegram Thursday, August 25, 2005
In his 2004 book, "The Church That Forgot Christ,' Jimmy Breslin pays homage to some "good' priests. One thing that made them good was the fact that they were not real. Breslin was referring to movie priests; Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in "Going My Way,' Pat O'Brien as Father Duffy in "The Fighting 68 plus 1th,' Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan in "Boys Town.'
These films played in that seemingly innocent era when priests were revered and pedophilia was a word many of us could not begin to define. Later, we learned the era was not all that innocent. Children were being molested in parish after parish by men capitalizing on the trust that comes with wearing a clerical collar.
The film priests, however, did no wrong. Sure, Padre Flanagan once resorted to fisticuffs, but his antagonist had it coming. And, yes, Father Fitzgibbon, the elderly pastor played by Barry Fitzgerald, did keep a hidden "drop o' the crature.' But that was for medicinal purposes and to help put him to sleep as Bing sang, "Toora Loora Loora.' Father Good Guy
Breslin's book was much as I had expected; a chronicle of real-life stories in which priests violated their young charges. But what brought me up short was his contrasting portrait of a Brooklyn priest named Father John Powis.
Reading Breslin's sketch of Powis, I kept waiting for the priest to fall as so many others in the book had fallen. But he did not fall.
As pastor of St. Barbara's church, he said daily Mbutt, presided over an exhausting array of ceremonys, baptisms and weddings, battled drug pushers, helped the homeless, fought for tenants' rights, ministered to those with AIDS, attended to the parade of mendicants who flocked to his rectory, and brought people back again and again from the brink of despair. Nor did he stop when he came down with cancer and Parkinson's.
He kept his Sunday tradition of having the congregation sing "Happy Birthday' to members celebrating that occasion. Once when a little girl missed the cue to stand for the song, Powis caught her disappointment, summoned her to the front of the church, and had the congregation sing a second time just for her.
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Who would not love such a man?
Other victims
In short, Powis did all the things priests did back when there were three or four of them per parish. And did them in a diocese reduced to 187 priests for 217 parishes.
Reading that touching portrait of Powis, it came to me that there were two sets of victims in the scandal that has rocked the Catholic church over the last decade. The first victims, of course, were those who were violated, plus their families who lived through those horrors.
The other victims were the "good' priests, now viewed with suspicion because of the crimes of others. One warning now pbutted among Catholics is: "Never leave your child alone with a priest.' It has come to that.
Superficially, all priests appear to be cut by the same clerical cloth. There is no outwardly way to distinguish a John Powis from a priestly predator. It will take generations to change that, to undo the havoc left by the offenders and the so-called leaders who covered for them.
If, indeed, it can ever be undone. Tom Hennessy's viewpoint appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
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