HEART IN THE WOUND • Sexual Abuse from the Catholic Church to Civil Society documents the public and private spheres around the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church to bring us to the broader, common issues of sexual violation and abuse of power.
Survivors and advocates collaborate to shed light on a public health problem the American Medical Association calls “a silent, violent epidemic in the U.S. today.”
Members of the Boston Boy Choir just before they are called to perform in the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School concert at St. Paul’s Church.
Cambridge, Mass., December 1993
Bishops who protected abusive priests could not be criminally prosecuted until supervisory endangerment laws were passed in 2002. Clergy are also now required to report abuse of minors.
Palm Sunday Passion Play rehearsal, Boston, Mass., March 2002
Maryetta Dussourd and Rev. Carr, Rector of the Cathedral. Three of her sons and four of her nephews were molested by Father Geoghan, a revered guest in her home in the 1970's. June 2002
Catholics of all stripes walk through Boston in support of victims of clergy abuse. Hundreds gathered at the steps of the Cathedral, where victims told their stories of abuse. June 2002.
Cardinal Law and his aides prepare for a midday Novena for Healing. Afterwards, Law resumed his sworn testimony about his supervision of pedophile priest John Geoghan. May 2002
Nearly 250 people gather in the bitter cold to show support for victims of sexual abuse by priests and to urge Bishop McCormack to resign. Manchester, NH, January 2003
Good Friday protests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, MA. March 2002
Patrick McSorley, 29, became one of the most visible critics of clergy sex abuse and the church’s practice of shuffling known predators from parish to parish. He died of an overdose in 2004.
Activists march to the State House calling for the elimination of the statute of limitations for sex offenses against children, and to locate un-prosecuted perpetrators. Feb 2004
After receiving communion from Cardinal Law, a man prostrates himself, barefoot, at Pentecost Sunday Mass. Boston, Mass., May 2002.
Lawyers for the church (left) and for 86 victims (right) of former priest John Geoghan hold their positions at a court hearing about enforcing a settlement on which the church had reneged.
Phil and other protestors at the side gates of the Cathedral, trying to get the attention of Cardinal Law. Boston, Mass., July 2002
Cardinal Law prays the rosary en route to mass in Marlborough, Mass. June 2002
Several enraged survivors pretend to spit at priests leaving the Mass of Installation for Archbishop Sean O'Malley, Cardinal Law's permanent successor.
Boston, Mass., July 2003
Survivors of Joe Birmingham is a support group formed by men molested by that one priest over three decades in five parishes. At least 128 victims have come forward. Lowell, Mass., February 2003
Rev. Oscar Pratt comforts parishioners at a Black Catholic Mass of Healing, St. Angela’s, Mattapan. One inner-city parish had five alleged perpetrator priests over the last 20 years. May 2002.
Some of the 600 Boston area teenagers returning from World Youth Day, the Catholic youth festival in Toronto. Pope John Paul ll made his first public mention of the scandal. July 2002
Law is the first American bishop to lose his job for mismanaging sexually abusive priests. TV press wait for accused pedophile priest Paul Shanley to report for a court hearing. Dec. 2002
Rev. Tom Doyle, right, a priest and canon lawyer whose 1985 report warning the Catholic hierarchy of the potential scope of the sex abuse scandal was ignored, at a rally with survivors. NH, Jan. 2003
"I need to be peaceful in my own life and mind. I can't just say everybody else has to do it." Olan Horne with other clergy abuse survivors. Topsfield, Mass., March 2003
Survivors and survivor supporters at weekly protests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Boston, September 2003
Joseph Druce, center, is arraigned for beating and strangling to death his fellow inmate, defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan. Worcester Superior Court, Worcester, Mass, September 2003
Participants take a break during the Archdiocesan Youth Convocation at Boston Catholic High School, 1994.
HEART IN THE WOUND
Sexual Abuse from The Catholic Church to Civil Society
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse forced Americans to reassess how they think about abuse, power, and the Catholic Church. “Heart in the Wound” documents the public and private spheres around the sexual abuse crisis, bringing us to the broader, common issues of sexual violation and abuse of power.
I made these documentary photographs from a precarious position in Boston: I had an intuitive and personal empathy with the victims, and also had access to the church. I hoped at first to witness healing, but soon saw that the failures of the institutional church were irredeemable.
As I continued photographing the battleground of protests, support groups, and lawsuits, I became close with three victim/survivors and made lengthy recordings with each of them. Kathy, Phil, and Olan’s voices form the soundtrack to a short film I made in 2006.
By its very nature, sexual abuse is both shameful and invisible. For decades, the church denied the criminal behavior in its ranks while making small settlements with non-disclosure agreements, quietly shuffling abusive priests to unsuspecting parishes, and taking advantage of the complicity of public officials and the trust of the faithful.
The victims of rape and molestation were left silent and unseen, but the effect of these traumas became all too evident in their personal and work lives, their physical and mental health, and in spiritual, social and family arenas. In 2002, the drumbeat of facts overwhelmed the denials, and victims’ voices finally took center stage.
This project tackles sexual abuse as a complex form of violence that lives in our midst rather than in other people’s homes or churches. What was exposed in the Catholic Church opened the door to revelations of child sex abuse and sexual harassment scandals in Hollywood, USA Gymnastics, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, the Penn State football community, the Boy Scouts of America, the media and politics. Indeed, clergy abuse survivors’ confrontation of power, sexism and homophobia is a foundational stepping-stone for the “Me Too” movement.
This collision of vulnerability with power is being met by a growing public sphere of safety that includes parents who believe their children, prosecutors who hold respected citizens accountable, and survivors pursuing forms of emotional justice that have not yet been created.
