The Catholic Review has reported that the Penitential Liturgy with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on 1st October 2024 opened with testimonies of those who have faced great suffering, among those a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, was his way of “just trying to appeal to their better selves.” (Copyright © 2024 OSV News)

Gien is a successful musician, pursuing his career as a baritone and performing on stages across Europe. Based in Germany, he has sung at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, the National Theater in Prague, the Istanbul Opera House, performing a wide repertoire and specializing in dramatic and iconic Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner roles.

He outlined that, for survivors, the effects of abuse are “long-lasting,” and the “psychological toll often includes feelings of betrayal, shame, anxiety, depression."  He stressed that one of “the most heart-wrenching aspects of this issue is the anonymity that often surrounds it,” and that “many survivors remain unnamed and unheard, their stories silenced by fear, stigma, or threats.”

For decades, accusations were ignored, covered up, or handled internally rather than reported to authorities.

This lack of accountability has not only allowed abusers to continue their behaviour but has also eroded the trust that so many once placed in the institution.

After his Vatican testimony, Gien said that he also sees the church “changing slowly.”  “The fact that I can speak today is a wonderful thing. And also it does me good. It has helped me to be able to find compassion."

When asked what he now hopes for from the church, Gien said: “to redefine itself in society and regain its position of moral guidance, because we definitely need it more than ever.

Fr Hans Zollner, director of the Institute of Anthropology – Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) in Rome, speaking after the liturgy ended, pointed out that “people lose trust” in the Church not only “because of the abuse itself,” but also “because of the inability, the resistance and the negligence,” or “even worse, — the cover up that has happened, through bishops, through provincials, through other church leaders, also laity, who didn’t do what needed to be done at the moment so that the abuse was stopped and those who committed those crimes and sins were punished.”

Victims of abuse . . .  need to to feel that they are not expelled again, but rather that the church is engaged in reaching out to them and not waiting until they beg for some recognition or some reparation.