By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

One of three plaintiffs who recently agreed to drop a lawsuit alleging the Vatican’s role in the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse has returned to the Church after an 80 year absence.

According to The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana, James O’Bryan, 89, left the Church after he was allegedly groped by a priest at St. Cecilia Church in Louisville when he was seven years-old.  Although the case was never tried, and no other complaint was ever filed against the priest, O’Bryan joined a lawsuit in 2004 that was aimed at implicating the Vatican in the cover-up by U.S. bishops of priests who were abusing minors. The point of the case was to hold the church hierarchy accountable and prompt it to reform how it handles sexual abuse complaints. However, the case was dropped last week due to insufficient evidence of the Vatican’s complicity in the crimes.

O’Bryan said the childhood inicident divided his family between those who believed him and those who thought the priest could never have done such a thing. The whole episode, and its accompanying trauma, caused him to lose faith in the Church that had been the center of his life.  For the next eight decades of his life, he continued to believe in God and retained a devotion to St. Anthony, but no longer practiced the Catholic faith. 

But in January of this year, tragedy struck when his wife of 52 years was dying. Although she was not a practicing Catholic at the time, she asked for a priest to administer the Last Rites. O’Bryan called the parish of St. Anthony’s in Mendocino, California, which is near his home in Albion.  Father Louis Nichols responded to the call, and then performed the funeral Mass.

“I saw how compassionate he was and how caring he was,” O’Bryan told The Courier.

The priest’s kindness prompted him to call the priest for a follow-up appointment, and “I’ve been going to church ever since,” he said.

According to Fr. Nichols, O’Bryan shows no bitterness or hostility toward the Church.  Although he did not know about the lawsuit when O’Bryan first contacted him, he said he was impressed that he “wasn’t bitter or anything.” Calling him a “great gentleman,” he said O’Bryan was being “well received” at the parish.

The kindness of another priest also impacted O’Bryan’s decision to return to the Church. It happened several years ago when he received a letter from Fr. John Burke, a priest at his old parish of St. Cecilia’s. In it, Fr. Burke expressed regret over what had happened to him in the past. O’Bryan was touched by the gesture, which no doubt helped him to make the final decision to return to the Church.

Coming back after all these years has had its challenges, he says, especially in the area of the Mass. “I don’t know the liturgy,” he admits. “I’m used to the Latin Mass.”

But he’s back, and that’s all that matters to him. “I feel it’s my church, and I feel the healing process has already started,” he said. “They’ve recognized the things that they’re responsible for, so really we’ll get on with the rest of my life.”

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