New York Echoes 2 by Warren Adler

Author:Warren Adler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2016-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

In God’s Name

The neighborhood, west of Sixth Avenue, a few blocks from the cusp of gentrification, was rundown, a relic of the twenties. Rows of tenement-type four-story walk-up apartments lined both sides of the street. Garbage cans, secured by chains, sat beside the narrow entrances of the buildings.

Consulting his little notebook, Carey checked Father Joseph’s address, and shook his head as he confirmed it. Not very pleasant, he thought, but then the man was in a kind of forced purgatory, out on bail and awaiting the result of an appeal that seemed bound to be denied. He faced the remainder of his life in prison.

He had followed the case in the newspapers, at least at the beginning, until it had become too painful, especially when confronted by photos of the poor man, aged, blank of expression, empty-eyed and pitiful. An embarrassment to the Church, a pedophile, a seducer of young boys, he had been excoriated in the media, broken; his life as a priest, a shepherd to his flock, ruined.

Guilt-ridden by his own cowardice, Carey could not bring himself to step forward. Gilbert, his partner for a quarter of a century, his lover and true friend, had agonized with him, losing sleep, listening to Carey’s litany of memories and, in the end, advising him to stay silent.

“Leave it alone. We have a good life,” Gilbert told him. “There is no point in martyrdom,” Gilbert advised. They were untroubled, respected, with a wide circle of friends of all genders and persuasions. Carey was a lawyer at a prestigious law firm and Gilbert a professor of English literature at NYU. To step forward was pointless. Whatever he would say would have no legal standing. Nothing could possibly change the relentless course of justice.

The law was the law and the vaunted self-righteous Catholic Church, which had long been a secret safe harbor for men of their persuasion, was being called to account and doomed to embarrassment and monetary loss. And the men caught in the trap of their sexual orientation who had crossed the legal line had to be prosecuted. It was a drama that was destined to be played out with a vengeance. Numerous witnesses who professed to have had sex with the priest had come forward, testifying how Father Joseph’s seductions had impacted negatively on their lives.

“You would accomplish nothing,” Gilbert pressed. “He has numerous accusers, people who allege that they have been damaged by the priest’s conduct. Then there is the element of greed. The Church is a great money target. To assert publicly that the priest’s illegal conduct was a boon to you would make you a laughing stock. Put it out of your mind.”

“I won’t act, of course. But it won’t be easy getting it out of my mind.”

“Try.”

For Carey, the memory of his own experience was powerful, life-changing, and yes, wonderful, joyful. It was burned into his memory, contemplated obsessively, shared with Gilbert numerous times in their earlier days together. It was the quintessential watershed moment of his life.

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