Gumbleton's Back

At the national SNAP meeting in Jersey, the retired Detroit auxiliary returns to the fore....

"It's become a corporate entity," Gumbleton said of the church.

"I find it hard how any bishop could care more about money than about children," he said. "Even if we became totally poor, that's where the church started -- who cares?"

In January, Gumbleton became the first and only Catholic bishop in America to reveal he was sexually abused by a clergy member.

"I'm honored to stand here not just before you, but with you," Gumbleton told SNAP members. "I am with you as a survivor."

And of course, Ladies and Gentlemen... David Clohessy.

On Friday night, SNAP National Director David Clohessy urged victims to keep pushing for legislation to remove statutes of limitation that prevent many victims from suing dioceses in decades-old abuse cases.

"The next few years are going to be tough," Clohessy said. "Public attention, let's face it, is beginning to wane. Public outrage is ever so slowly on the decline. There are people out there, probably many of them, who are getting tired of hearing about these horrific crimes and about our enduring pain.

"The good news is, I did not say that the hardest times are ahead," Clohessy said. "The hardest part really is behind us. The abuse itself is behind us."

Er, there's still a lot of abuse going on out there. It may not be sexual, but the exploitation, unresolved grief, and lack of faith the waves of post-2002 fallout have induced continue to bear effects just as tragic in the lives of so many of our faithful -- not to mention loads of our priests in the trenches.

No, no, friends, the abuse is not behind us. If anything, the pain's just been spread further still.

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