Clinton John Marty still has nightmares from his childhood. He is unable to work, but has overcome alcohol addiction and has a family. He’s also a grandfather.
But four decades after he left a Catholic run home, he still has pain.
He said he was sexually, physically and mentally abused by both male and female authority figures in the home.
“Seeing more of the images of the residential schools that have popped up lately has just flooded so many memories,” he told APTN News.
He talked with APTN about Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit and the expected apology.
“I’ve been screaming for years, ‘abuse, abuse, abuse’ and nobody listened. I’m sick of people not listening and ignoring us. The Pope can come right to my front door and apologize to me, but it won’t make a lick of difference,” he said.
“He’s doing it because he feels he has to.”
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He said others may feel differently, especially elders, who might want to hear the words of apology to begin to heal from their own wounds.
Marty didn’t go to a residential school but a home run by the Catholic Church and financed by the province of Alberta. He wasn’t compensated for his abuse. He is part of a class action lawsuit that has been ongoing for decades.
“I believe that once the Pope is gone, and the media hype dies down, we will be forgotten again,” he said. “There are many us, hundreds, if not thousands of us who were abused who do not fall under federal jurisdiction.
“We fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government of Alberta and children’s services. And they continue to fight us in court to this day.”
Marty said he’s no longer a catholic because too much damage has been done.
“The Holy Father himself, not Francis, but all the ones prior were just as guilty of molesting, beating and killing children in those schools as the priests and nuns who did it, there is no difference,” he said.
“To me, once that older generation is gone, religion I believe will have no part at all in our healing.”
