Church once was everything to Dorothy Small.
Raised and baptized a Catholic, she viewed Holy Rosary parish in Woodland as a haven. Though her work schedule as a home health nurse was demanding, Small was an active church volunteer, singing as a soloist in the choir, participating in Bible study and immersing herself in ministry.
But in 2014 a new priest joined the church, and he immediately sought her out. He sent her inappropriate text messages, frequently spent time with her and tried to come over to her house alone, she said. Eventually, Small reported him to the church, and he was suspended for a week but allowed to keep his job.
Small agreed to meet with him, an attempt to smooth things over after his suspension — after all, he’s a priest; he’s supposed to be safe. It was a turning point of sorts. She began to open up to him about her life, a cancer diagnosis and childhood trauma she was still working through. The priest, she said later, took advantage of those intimate details and began to groom her. Small says in 2015, a week before Ash Wednesday, he sexually assaulted her.
Small initially kept quiet, saying she felt a need to protect the church and the priest. But her life began to unravel; she started drinking too much, got a DUI, and felt she could not attend Mass.
Eventually, she reported the assault to the diocese and the priest was fired. But she said the firing was explained to parishioners as “an inappropriate relationship with an adult woman,” not as an assault.
By speaking up, Small lost her church and the support of a community she considered her family. She wasn’t forbidden from attending services, she says, but she was ostracized and banned from participating in ministry, including the choir.
“Once I reported the priest, they, of course, were disappointed and held me in the same level of accountability, if not more: ‘You should have known better.’ ‘You’re older than him.’ ‘It’s your fault that Father…
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