Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcZPYMpksk
The protests scattered.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjt4LsAIUk7
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwRFvqSYh31
The priests still presided.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvfYSjSt1oo
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLITFEhB8M
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZEJuWJYME
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8PsMrEUPy3
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnQPeaj1Y7
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEvczOGO88Z
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuuvYMiqDLQ
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCCjsn1089
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYEOUJP9Zj
She was not a saint.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNiedwWpcql
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09qUDfqdN5
Sometimes, when Clark kissed her shoulder, she’d flinch, then apologize, then cry.
Sometimes she wondered what her life would have been if she had just stayed quiet.
But most nights, she wrote back.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1o76j6czJ
To every letter.
With her truth.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IkPpG6MHB
With Ely’s files.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy0ECKKyxns
With the names she refused to let history forget.
One night, a girl from Cagayan emailed her.
“He tells us obedience is holiness. He makes us kneel when he speaks. I’m scared.”
Ella didn’t just reply. She got in a car with Clark, printed the files, and went north.
They never stopped them all.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn4G4Eh5Gdk
They never burned the Church down.
But they burned the lie that faith should mean silence.
And that was enough for now.
FINAL NOTE (in Ella's words):
ns216.73.216.148da2This story was never written to destroy faith.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7wh4FESmR
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2Igmyg01U
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMzwCMPDsfS
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJZwCnpSYOj
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNGDbbvnEdx
Amen.
