A GATHERING FOR JUSTICE..4/28/07---LARRY

My wife Ginny and I were both raised by devoutly Catholic parents.  Catholic is who we are.  I’ve heard it said, “it’s in our DNA”.  We both had uncles who were priests and who we looked up to as holy and happy men.  My family’s pastor visited our farm weekly.  A generous and faith filled man who I believe loved the activity of our family of 12, and who always came in the door calling my mother and saying, “Eleanor do you have any pie?”

After Ginny and I married we purchased a home that happened to be just across the parking lot from the church.  Coming from a background such as ours, the parish priest was not only a pastor, but a neighbor.  The parking lot was the neighborhood ball field and skating rink.  Just as neighbors do, various pastors over the years were invited to our home for dinners and parties, or would stop by our porch for a beer on a summer evening.  And as it was for us, we wanted our children to not only know these men as someone who had Mass on Sunday, but real people.  During those years seminarians studying for the priesthood came and went.  Looking back on it we came up with some interesting numbers.  Our family was invited to 6 ordinations.  Of the six men ordained, two died at an early age, two we later found out were pedophiles, one became a bishop, and one is a practicing pastor today.  At any rate, you can see how a priest bent on abuse of a child found our family to be an easy target. Fr. Hopp was in our parish less than four months when he first abused David.  However, for us, the idea of a priest harming our children never entered our minds.  We felt we were doing the right thing, and never suspected any wrongdoing.

In 1995, when David told us of his abuse, I was stunned and angry that someone we respected could ever commit such a horrible and evil deed.  Seven years later, when David was finally able to become public about his abuse, we felt is was time to speak with Archbishop Pilarczyk to get some resolution as to what had happened. As David said earlier, Ginny’s mother and brother, David’s godfather, went with us in support for him.   What we got was a very cold reception, and with every point David made, the Archbishop defended Hopp.  For example, when David asked why Hopp was still being supported, and not defrocked, the Archbishop said, “Well, the man’s got to eat.”   David quickly responded he could eat in jail, or at the very least, get a job at Seven-eleven.

I asked how a priest, by committing a mortal sin of sexually molesting a child one minute have the ability to consecrate the Eucharist the next.  The Archbishop simply shrugged his shoulders.  It was as if we were mosquitoes bouncing off plastic, and never got through to him.  In fact it seemed as though he couldn’t wait for us to leave, as he was constantly checking his watch and asking us, “Anything else?”  We were an annoyance to Pilarczyk and came away feeling no sense of support by him for David’s ordeal, but great care and concern for the abuser, Hopp.
 
It was truly one of the most degrading days of our lives, and we left more angry and frustrated than when we came.  This was our first insight at the devious inner workings of our leadership.  I now felt that all of the good experiences of the past were hollow.

Several months later we heard of an organization called Voice of the Faithful who was responding to the clergy abuse issue.  We thought that perhaps this group could help us in our need for justice.  The closest VOTF was in Dayton, 50 miles to the south, where we attended our first meeting.  It was at that meeting that we discovered that Mike Knellinger and Kris Ward the leaders of the Dayton affiliate had been looking for us, to lend their support to David and us.  It was through them, and not our supposed shepherd the Archbishop, that we found some hope for resolution and justice for David and other abused children.  As we continue this fight I believe that it is through the people in the pews that will make the difference in the outcome for what our Church will be in the future. I don’t feel we can count on the hierarchy to do the right thing.