Pat's Silence

After he was accused of sexual abuse Father Pat was arrested brought in for questioning . The police were convinced he was guilty and prepared a case against him .
After he was convicted Fr Pat was sent away behind the doors of a prison where he served ten years for his crime .
There were many who thought that Fr Pat was innocent but just as many who said he was a monster and deserved everything he got .

The years passed slowly but the day came when Pat finally left the prison and walked free into a world that he never understood .

He was disillusioned by the church who had cut him off .
He was angry with himself for trusting those who never came to his aid .
He was hurt and alone .

Knowing no one he wandered into the city where he slept rough in the fringes of the concrete jungle .

Eventually he was collected and given shelter by one of the City Christian Charity organizations who provided him with emergency shelter until he was assessed by a section of the community mental health team .

Since the day he left the prison Pat hadn’t had a wash or changed his clothes and was a real mess .

A number of attempts were made to communicate with P at by social workers and other members of the community health but no one was able to get any kind of communication out of Pat .
The limit to the information he gave was either a grunt or a groan .

Finally they decided to list him as handicapped and severely traumatised .

He was given a government package and placed into the care of a government funded hostel .
Pat resided in the home where he where he remained silent and alone .
He sat from dawn to dusk staring blankly into space from an arm chair beside the door .
He existed under the roof of Calvary Hostel accepting help from people who came everyday to look after his personal hygiene .
At times people would say ,

“What a sad thing , he has no family or visitors. “

Eventually he died and was given a paupers burial .
After a worker went in to clean up his room at the hostel it was then that a journal was uncovered .

Within the well written lines of hundreds of pages was a record of the suffering he had gone through .

He never said he was innocent just that he was a human being with human desires and for that reason he had been convicted of a crime that he could never come to terms with . He was guilty of loving a young girl who came to him one evening with the same thought in mind .
After he refused to leave the church and marry her she accused him of abusing her .
He never denied it and so it was assumed he was guilty and because her was a priest it went down hard .

Pat became a person who served a life sentence and daily put himself under severe penance .

In the garden of Cavalry Hostel a statue was placed in tribute to Fr Pat .
There was a beautiful silence there in that garden .
It was so peaceful and calm there that you could escape for a while from the madness of anyone or anything that made life difficult .

The End
B Paul McCann