Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcf0nQd3CRL
The protests scattered.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4Q4yvjWze
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVn7y5yg2In
The priests still presided.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5anefk0Rx2
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswTLIeYSWC
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZAoHKNAZ0c
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvgwLfpIP5C
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94FxTv4pWq
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhFYnXfFr8
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rKkeZzbYc
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxmjREUgbkI
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRornnmI3Ya
She was not a saint.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYWKZyg53WH
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4doMKTK1Fx
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.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQJzFofsbW
To every letter.
With her truth.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6y2KWwv7Fq
With Ely’s files.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo9Bd00Q7Ej
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.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlP8ZtoBkzk
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):
ns216.73.216.167da2This story was never written to destroy faith.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9lNEObHgFr
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOytep17vPu
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRI8AiKnmJz
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkfSMFkrsEf
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZA5nL5Q2oS
Amen.
