‘Instead of justice, he got a cushy job’
Ann Hagan Webb, a Wellesley psychologist who treats fellow survivors of priest sexual abuse, said she spent much of yesterday in sessions, fielding texts and taking phone calls about Cardinal Bernard Law’s death.
One thing’s clear, she said: Boston is far from over the role Law played in the sexual abuse scandal. A survivor of abuse by a priest in Rhode Island, Webb explained more, as told to the Herald’s Matt Stout: A lot of people have asked me about forgiveness. But I’m not hearing that. People talk about Cardinal Law, and he’s still very real to survivors in Boston, even though he’s been gone for 15 years. I must hear someone rant about Cardinal Law at least once a week in my office.
People are still coming in, new survivors are coming into therapy for the first time. Younger victims, older victims. I met with somebody last year who was 84 years old, had breakfast with him and I was the first person he ever told. People come forward when it’s time for them ... and there’s people like me where it’s been 25 years since I started working on my abuse.
(Law) went from here and, instead of justice, he got a cushy job in Rome. I don’t think Boston survivors have ever reconciled with that.
For me, (the news) sent me back — not to my own abuse, but in 2002. I was on the picket line with my husband. My husband was out there with a bullhorn. We blamed (Law). So it sent me back to that, and to all the survivors I’ve met and all the changes and intensity since that time. And to all the disappointments along the way, when we thought the church was going to change and it never did.
I didn’t sleep well last night, I have to admit. But also because I’m a caretaker. I’ve been going through the Rolodex in my head about who was going to be upset and what we were going to talk about today.