Barbara Blaine, head of the Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests, headed to Rome this weekend to protest the canonization of Popes John Paul II, and John XXIII. Specifically in the case of John Paul II, Blaine believes that he did not do enough to protect those abused by priests and did not do enough to prevent priests from hurting young people. According to nearly everyone else in the world, John Paul II was the “Pope of the Young People,” advocating for them to be more involved in ministry, and appearing with vigor at the bi-annual World Youth Day. Blaine was once a victim of abuse by a priest. In her later years, Barbara Blaine had the priest disrobed (which means he was taken from his priestly duties in a dishonorable way) and justice in her instance was served. However, it appears that Blaine would like to take her horrible childhood and press it upon others. Blaine continues to utilize her organization, SNAP, and target (often in a misguided fashion) all Catholic priests. Blaine will stop at nothing.
Which leads me to this question: Why do we give someone, with such a predisposed hatred of Catholic leaders, such authority?
If you were on trial, would you want the person who decided your fate to be your worst enemy? If your reputation and good name were on the line, would you want someone who generally disliked you to determine your future?
Where Barbara Blaine is concerned, every priest is a predator. Where Barbara Blaine is concerned, every accuser’s ambitions are pure. But what about the priests who have not engaged in that horrible new stereotype of Catholic priests? And what about those accusers that hope for monetary gain or the reputation damage for a priest they didn’t like? Just because I am a 23-year-old white girl does not mean I get wasted on the weekends, jump in my Prius, and head to Starbucks every morning. My point: stereotypes aren’t always accurate. Stereotypes often only represent small margins of people in a specific group, and Barbara Blaine is ignoring that fact.
Barbara, we are so incredibly sorry about the horrific experience you had with a priest in your youth, however, some of us grew up with a priest we loved. Please stop seeking to ruin the lives of the Catholic leaders we admire like Father Mike O’Connell and the newly canonized Saint John Paul II, and leave your past in the past.