A Survivor of Clerical Sex Abuse Tells His Harrowing Tale at St. Peter’s

As a child, Laurence Gien was abused by a priest in South Africa. Decades later, he became the first survivor to recount his pain at the Basilica in front of Pope Francis and dozens of cardinals and bishops.

A professional baritone, Laurence Gien has sung in some of the most storied opera houses in the world. So, he wasn’t particularly daunted by the glitter and gold of St. Peter’s Basilica.

But the message he came to deliver to an audience that included Pope Francis and dozens of bishops and cardinals — of his sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a priest — made his appearance a powerful experience nonetheless.

Speaking as part of a solemn ceremony on Tuesday evening, during which Francis begged forgiveness for a host of sins, “was amazing for my own spiritual journey as a human being,” Mr. Gien said in an interview in his Rome hotel the next morning.

It was the first time a survivor of clerical sexual abuse had spoken in a formal prayer service in the basilica, a Vatican spokesman said.

His operatic voice booming in the cavernous basilica, Mr. Gien, 63, recalled how as an 11-year-old child he had been groomed over several months by a priest at his boarding school in South Africa until, one morning, “in the screaming silence, he took from me what should never be taken from any child.”

“This moment in time, in all its sordid detail, is a part of my physical being and consciousness, and is as present today as it was when it took place,” he said.

As dozens of clerics in scarlet and purple skullcaps looked on, Mr. Gien spoke about wounds caused by the loss of trust that can take a lifetime to heal, if ever. He spoke about “unnamed and unheard” survivors, and the complicity and lack of accountability of a church that for centuries put its own perpetrators ahead of the victims.

At the ceremony, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the retiring archbishop of Boston who heads the Vatican’s commission on clerical sexual abuse, asked forgiveness for sexual abuse, which stole “innocence and profaned the sacredness of those who are weak and helpless.”

For some 50 years, Mr. Gien, who has lived in Germany for decades, did not go public with his story. And he did not sue the church, as many survivors have. “It’s not in my makeup to do that,” he said.

Then about three years ago he came into contact with the Rev. Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit who is arguably the Catholic Church’s leading expert on anti-abuse efforts. He invited Mr. Gien to Rome to give two concerts and speak to students in the anti-abuse program Father Zollner runs at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Last month, Father Zollner asked Mr. Gien to speak at the prayer service in the basilica, which preceded a monthlong talk about the future of the church among an assembly of clerics and lay people at the Vatican that began Wednesday. In his interactions with the singer, Father Zollner said he had found him to be “very impressive, very clear, very personable,” and “with the personality to face a worldwide audience in such an impressive place like St. Peter’s.”

Sexual abuse emerged as a global crisis for the church in recent decades. Even though Pope Francis has taken unprecedented measures to address the issue, broadening awareness and the willingness to address the scourge, the results have been uneven.

Father Zollner said: “Some people really engage. Some people are committed. Some people are still negligent. Some people are denying. And some people might even be covering up for now. And by people, I mean not only bishops and religious superiors, but also laity.”

After he was abused, Mr. Gien said he had complained to the headmaster, who told him not to tell his parents. The priest was moved to another school. About 15 years ago, he tried to track down his abuser “to confront him,” he said, but both the priest and the headmaster had died.

Mr. Gien recently made a five-minute film about clerical abuse that will be distributed next year. “I have the ability to do my art,” he said. “That’s been a huge amount of consolation for me.”

Speaking out, he hopes, “will prevent this from happening in the future.”

Scattered applause broke out in the basilica after he finished his testimony. It appeared to come entirely from the lay people, but not from the clerics.

Mr. Gien smiled ruefully: “I mean, the singer in me says, ‘Oh yes, the applause is what counts.’” But then he said that several cardinals had come up afterward to congratulate him, and that he felt real compassion from them. Pope Francis stood up and shook his hand. He gave him a rosary.

“Maybe they didn’t clap because they were moved,” he said.