I have been reading more accounts of those who were abused by priests and who then committed suicide.
“…les pauvres, les paumés, les malades, les suicidés
En qui j’ai vu Ton visage.
Eux aussi présent tous les jours.
Élève-les jusqu’à Ton épaule pour les consoler.” (Michael Lonsdale)
I have read some of the survivors’ accounts on the Bishop Accountability website and they are all harrowing. The one that is especially chilling to me in its magnitude is the account of the victims of the former priest Robert Larson. The picture of one of the victims, Bobby Thompson, as a little boy really tugs at my heart. He had such an innocence to him in that picture, and one that was destroyed so cruelly by Larson. For him and for all victims of Larson, and for all victims of sexual abuse in and outside the Church, may God bless them all and Mary pray for them.
Let us never, ever forget that the bastards who abused children and enabled the abusers will be judged severely by a holy, righteous God Whose name has been dragged through the sewer! Those who are responsible for the suicide of the innocent have a special place in Hell.
Jesus had words of comfort and compassion for other sinners, but for those who scandalized the young he was uncharecteristically harsh; “Better for them that a great millstone be tied around their necks and they be thrown into the sea.” Some clerics had better start repenting, in a serious way, before they go to face the judge! The doctrine of Purgatory helps me get my head around how God could ultimately forgive in this area (“The managers who knew what their master wanted will receive a very severe beating,”).