Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7bpjEJDNG
The protests scattered.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcBb8OqcV7m
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPARTky2S8
The priests still presided.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcCuB86W27S
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0jc8LBFNb
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1xV4f1Qoa
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxPdsJk0hMu
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZOJEiSPaz
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjlV6W4y8Yl
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTInGAC8Or
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzOzeMMlmX
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwo1SLA9MEd
She was not a saint.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXEhieg5BM
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqscq5kKVci
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.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJONdsMuDu
To every letter.
With her truth.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJgcVuIjaCm
With Ely’s files.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHQgVOzPv6N
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.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLsvoVm62U
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.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsWhnOL1VhC
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzDS4u8iLf
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKbmaSArTIu
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXFP4IHHOX
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10NSTMaLYK
Amen.
