Deliver Us from Evil Page #3

or a Presbyterian.

The thing that,

for a lot of non-Catholics

is hard to understand is,

the Church teaches

that the only way to salvation,

if you're Catholic,

is through the Church,

and if you're not

in communion with the Church,

you're damned to hell.

And it's not just kind of

like without-God hell.

It's fire and brimstone hell for eternity.

Well, the Eucharist,

as we call it in Catholic theology,

the Holy Communion is the sharing

of the bread and wine

that for some is the body

and blood of Christ,

for others represents

the body and blood of Christ.

No matter what you call...

what words you use,

it's essential to Catholicism.

The power of the Eucharist

is what the Church

has held over people,

that "I, as an ordained person

with an indelible mark,

"can make Holy Communion

"is what separates you from me,

"what separates me

from the average person

going down the street. "

And if you think of, you know,

the earliest church communities,

it wasn't controlled by the clergy.

It was breaking of bread

and passed around to believing people

as a symbol of Christ's presence...

spiritual presence among us.

But then it has become

controlled in many ways,

and politicized.

So, for instance,

if you're married and divorced

and remarried but not by a priest,

you can't go to Communion.

If you're gay and you're not

absolutely chaste and celibate,

you can't go to Communion.

If you vote for somebody

who approves of abortion,

you can't go to Communion,

according to some.

So it's become a kind

of a politicized reward

for thinking the right way,

when, in effect,

it's none of the above.

I can't think of anything more evil

than a priest using his office,

what the Catholics

would call alter Christus,

when the priest raises

that host at Mass

and consecrates that host,

the priest becomes one with Christ.

The Catholics believe,

and we're all taught as little kids,

that it's truly Jesus Christ.

To take that hand,

within moments before or after that,

and place them on a child's genitals

and abuse him...

And I think that was part

of the terrible destruction to the child

that in addition to all the other...

consequences...

long-term consequences

of being sexually abused,

the spiritual abuse...

of being abused by embodiment

of the divine, if you will,

was just devastating.

I asked for a meeting

with Oliver O'Grady in '86,

and they told me, you know,

"Vengeance is wrong.

"He's a virtue of priesthood now.

"He's in counseling.

Check your motives.

"God will delve out punishments.

You don't need to. "

When Nancy Sloan came

to you in the '80s,

she was distressed, correct?

1986, was it?

Was she distressed?

No, she wasn't.

Was she just doing just fine?

She... The first time I saw her

was that day.

I hadn't known anything about her.

She seemed very composed.

He just went on and on,

lashing out all this guilt on me,

when I told him, you know,

I just want him

to understand the depth

of the pain that I suffer

on a regular basis,

that how, when I see a Dodge Duster,

which was the car

that he drove at the time,

how I still pull over and dry heave.

What did she want?

She wanted to know

whether Father O'Grady

was continuing in therapy.

What did you tell her?

I told that I would...

I thought he was,

but I would check

on it for sure.

- Was he?

- Yes.

I told him, "You knew

that I was being abused.

"You knew that the abuse

was happening.

How could you not

have done something?"

So Bishop Montrose knew

O'Grady was an abuser?

He knew that O'Grady

had been accused

of inappropriate touching in '76.

Just like every other bishop after '76.

- Right?

- Yes.

And he said...

"We knew that you were being abused,

"but you were a girl,

"so we thought it was normal curiosity.

"Had you been a boy,

"we would have thought

something was wrong with it.

"That would have been obscene

for him to have abused a boy,

like homosexual. "

The situation is, I'm alone with the boy.

There wasn't anybody else

in the rectory at the time.

I brought him in.

I had been affectionate

with him before,

so being affectionate again with him

wasn't that difficult

a thing to do, which I was.

And I remember...

just holding him and hugging him

and probably saying

some nice things to him,

and he was responding

as well, you know.

And the thought that had gone

through my mind, actually,

was to...

take off all his clothes

and to molest him that way.

And I think I may have

taken off his T-shirt,

and then I was going

to unbuckle his pants,

and there was a feeling...

I didn't know if I wanted to go...

There was a conflict

in my mind about,

"Do I really want to do this?

"Here's somebody that I like.

"Here's somebody that I respect,

"a family I respect.

What would he feel like

at the end of this?"

Yet, at the other side,

there was urges within me

to be sexual with him,

and this is an opportunity

to be sexual with him,

because I wouldn't have

this opportunity again

God knows when.

And so I decided not to be

affectionate with him,

and yet later, I brought him

back into my bedroom again,

and I did unbutton his pants,

take out his penis,

and I began to masturbate him

at that time.

And...

I think what I... In doing that,

I'm not too sure what

he was feeling with all...

I think, looking at his face

kind of told me that he was...

a little uneasy about this.

I thought at one point

he was going to cry, you know.

One of the few times

it had ever happened to me,

I had an orgasm myself...

without him touching me,

and I think that ended it

right there and then.

So I just tidied him up, and...

perhaps I took care of myself, too,

in the bathroom alone,

but I tidied him up

and put on his T-shirt,

and then I made a decision

right there and then.

I was not going to do that again to this boy.

There's Ireland.

Yeah.

He went with us.

Yeah.

There he is

with Grandma and Grandpa.

- That's right. That's you.

- Yep.

- You're standing there.

- Behind the car.

Yeah.

- That's your Communion picture.

- Yep.

With Mahony.

I'm angry at Mahony

for claiming that he had absolutely

no knowledge of this pedophile

who had a file, a sub-secret file,

that had pieces of evidence,

that had, you know,

a father who had...

the Howard father

who had come forward

with his concerns

about the amount of time

that his children were alone

on Oliver O'Grady's days off.

'76 to '84,

that's, I think, when a lot of

the Howards' situation took place,

and, you know,

if I was involved with them,

I was a danger to them,

but I would have been a danger

to others as well.

Were you concerned

about Father O'Grady's conduct

with regard to the Howard

family in 1980?

I called him in and told him

that he was to cease and desist

any more conduct... contact

with Mrs. Howard or the Howard family.

He promised to do so,

and I never had another report

about him and the Howards.

I visited with the bishop,

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