When I got this in my mailbox, my heart sank. Because I knew many of the people fishing this out of their mailbox would be survivors. And the media can shape how people feel about themselves, about God, about the Church—and this is a painful message for survivors to hear.

To be clear, I know Pell was acquitted of the abuse of which he was accused. I know that on the rare occasion false accusations happen, it not only hurts the falsely accused, but also the many victims who already struggle to be heard without being accused of crying wolf.

Love rejoices with the truth, and so do I.

The truth of the abuse crisis in the Church is that the hierarchy is its perpetrator, not its victim. The victims of the abuse crisis are the victims of the abuse. Not the Church, not its priests, not its reputation. The actual victims.

Both in this advertisement and in the Catholic media in general, the Pell case has often been treated like a “victory” for the Church. A chance to rejoice that so-called victims really are “just out to get us.” A chance to prove that the world just wants to see the Church suffer.

Maybe it does. But you can believe that Pell did nothing wrong, that he was treated badly, and that he might have helpful insight to share—and still think it’s wrong to make money off trying to wrest moral credibility from the cesspool of institutional failure to protect victims.

The fundamental problem with writing about the abuse crisis in Catholic media is that it nearly always assumes survivors do not form part of its audience.

I think back on +Barron’s “Letter to a Suffering Church,” for instance. It treated the crisis as something that happened to the Church, not in the Church.

There are many survivors in the pews. There are even many survivors of clerical sexual abuse specifically still in the pews. What does this do for them?

I will admit I haven’t read Pell’s book, although I did read this extract. Is there some profound spiritual insight here that I’m missing that makes it worth the cost to survivors? https://catholicherald.co.uk/an-extract-from-cardinal-pells-prison-journal-volume-1/

I hesitated to say any of this. Replies are locked because I’m afraid. I love Catholic media. I’m afraid that criticizing it will make me sound like a liability. Like a cynic. Like a spiteful person who just wants the hierarchy to suffer.

But I love the Church and its media. I want to keep being a part of it. I want to be a part of its efforts to write for survivors, to reach out to them, to minister to their pastoral needs. That’s why I say all this. I think we can do better. I want you to be a part of that too.