Link – I got an early tip about a priest’s sexual abuse. And I sat on it.

So, yes, perhaps we could have done it. But we didn’t even try. I didn’t, to my everlasting regret. There are a lot of us out here: journalists who got a whiff of the stink and missed the big story, cops and prosecutors who looked the other way, bishops who saw the depth of the depravity and chose to cover it up. Perhaps some of us are guiltier than others, but we are members of the same tribe. That’s why one line in the movie, delivered by Stanley Tucci in the role of crusading Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, brought me to tears:

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”

It is right that anyone who had gotten information about the abuse that went on in the Church would feel regret and shame now for not believing the victims. We should, however, use this as an example to learn from instead of telling ourselves that we are somehow better than that now. There are still an awful lot of survivors out there who are not believed, and a lot of perpetrators loose because no one considers it possible that they would do such a thing.

Don’t be naive.

I got an early tip about a priest’s sexual abuse. And I sat on it.