The Past We Never Thought Was With Us

In recent years the public have been made aware
of the issue of institutional sexual child abuse,
to the point of mass burn out on the issue.
Misery memoirs citing abuse in amounts
of the vary between prurience and detail
are probably third on publishers lists,
behind 'I survived the Nazi death camps'
and all new celebrity autobiographies,
for supporting a sagging publishing industry.

But books published in the past, in the 1960's
rarely describe child abuse in any detail.
Though one book I read recently did.
and yes, it does involve Catholic clergy.
To understand what is going on
the reader has to read between the lines
of what was originally poetic prose....



'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.