Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aCrBDLQIa
The protests scattered.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡar3QGE1lIm
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy8Et86u5SP
The priests still presided.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3H2AI9VVVu
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4Ts1SWcq2
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6H79n92dQJ
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakpZ84s2tJ
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn2y7LqVgGk
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmX45vV1x4D
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyS0TwJtWI
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskeGf8Gxi8
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZDLDUJliP
She was not a saint.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLOK7iOOU3
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4sf1pvRLMc
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4Jjmxod2c
To every letter.
With her truth.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqKJCzy3iNp
With Ely’s files.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFINKandU0f
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAUKGCsvco
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):
ns216.73.216.209da2This story was never written to destroy faith.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuFrsw5nqHL
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7Xp1qeQHM
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWGMiJIq69
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCS2SxsUbKZ
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL5RgWjVffn
Amen.
