We owe it to clerical abuse survivors to read the whole story

How one woman faces the shock and scandal of clerical sex abuse in the diocese where she grew up.

On a beautiful day in the early summer of 2018, I was puttering around my apartment and getting ready for a parish visit. I was content in my work at an archdiocese, had recently returned from a stint at the Pre-Synod on Young People at the Vatican, and was knee-deep in wedding planning. To sound cheesy, I was loving church life.

Out of the blue, as I was getting ready to leave for another day of the ministry work I loved, I received a call from a friend: “Nicole, we didn’t want you to find out elsewhere: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of sexual abuse and the accusations were found credible. The story is about to break everywhere.”

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