Epilogue: The Gospel According to No One
Months passed.
The media storm died down.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwjrDhgFA7E
The protests scattered.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Z2HJ5wdRV
The Vatican released a vague statement—“We grieve. We investigate. We pray.”
And yet, the school still stood.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUC59B9zEw
The priests still presided.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgWTF9OJN3
The names of the guilty… were never mentioned.
But something had shifted.
In small parishes, whispers grew louder.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbFy5Zmj4YV
In quiet dorms, students asked harder questions.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWLXoExb2hG
In remote seminaries, boys started to write… to each other… and then to her.
Ella received letters now.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8w3DZ0k10l
Not hate mail. Not just.
Some were from victims who had never spoken.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBFkQ4BeRW
Some from young priests who had witnessed too much.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4boorTJhtG
Some from nuns. From teachers. From guards. From altar servers.
“I thought I imagined it too.”13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoG6LziX4XP
“I was too afraid to speak. Thank you for being louder than my fear.”13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2bEU1sDKo
“He’s still there. And I’m still serving under him.”
She didn't have all the answers.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYVkWQ4Er2Z
She was not a saint.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHoTvJrXXxq
And she never pretended to be.
Sometimes she still woke up with phantom hands on her body.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcjjcGeBkL
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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0M6QHMx23j
To every letter.
With her truth.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZFSsd4Wd7
With Ely’s files.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOA4LIQE33w
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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ890nifuI2p
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):
ns216.73.216.239da2This story was never written to destroy faith.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WvMpmF0aC
It was written to destroy the illusion that faith makes people untouchable.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpydt1v7GGe
There are good priests. I have loved one. I have fought beside another.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNh2hMKwhd
But holiness should never be a disguise for harm.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJ3dHKH3l5
If my voice shakes the pulpit, then maybe the pulpit was never built on rock to begin with.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHcWFeh84F
Amen.
