The Past We Never Thought Was With Us

In recent years the public have been made aware
of the issue of sexual child abuse to the nth degree,
through media reporting, through misery memoirs
which became a publishing industry success
second only to 'I survived the Nazi death camps' type books,
but rarely through any near-historical fiction.

Books published in the past, in the 1960's
rarely describe child abuse in any detail.
But one book I read recently did, and yes,
the reader has to read between the lines
and it does involve clergy....

'Father Gusewski had thick wavy hair,
black with the merest hint of grey.....

....Once when I was about thirteen,
he ran his small hairless hand down my back,
from my neck to the waist of my gym shorts,
but stopped there because my shorts
had no elastic band and I tied them with tapes.
I did not give the incident much thought,
Father Gusewski had won my sympathy
with his friendly, often boyish ways.
I can still remember his ironic benevolence;
so not another word about the occasional wanderings
of his hand; all perfectly harmless,
it was really my Catholic soul that he was looking for.'

From page 87 of  'Cat & Mouse'-Gunter Grass.
First published in German 1961, in English 1963.
Translation; Ralph Manheim.