Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNKKpmyQtK
The protests scattered.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvnf1XqYvyy
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoC2bpf6fj7
The priests still presided.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziJkP0oAgn
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNp6CAi52Td
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLkRQzoZoh
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVywO7XYZIS
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdXueop45p
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWiD3MNSkI
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvVWJRdLdf
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ482mygHkvq
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhQGyVmC9w
She was not a saint.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyj81VMgKDl
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtHuxuUO2x
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNdn7pV8XS
To every letter.
With her truth.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCW1jeTk2t
With Ely’s files.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHyWOgx63Y
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74a6L5aCG0
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):
ns216.73.216.203da2This story was never written to destroy faith.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6dUJhGtH7
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhwLA9Gubw
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR58w8q0de8
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJojJPwNvi
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMDGPqr4yT
Amen.
