Maria Goretti and #MeToo

Barbara McClay has another excellent piece at Commonweal about St. Maria Goretti:

For a Christian, no one can be wholly monster—indeed, some monsters are victims themselves. But the Mennonite response to Yoder should serve as a cautionary tale: The story of what McCarrick did doesn’t belong to him; it began with him, but will not end when he and his network have been completely exposed or completely punished. It belongs, rather, to his Maria Gorettis; those whose trust in him and whose faith in God were used as excuses for predation. It’s they who have suffered at his hands and at the hands of those who preferred to remain ignorant. It’s they to whom repentance must be made, and they whose healing will be synonymous with the church’s. This must be done, not for future children, not for future seminarians, not for future Catholics who won’t be damaged and in need of help; but for these people who the church has failed.