For commuters driving down Massachusetts avenue, this sign is no unfamiliar sight. For the past 19 years, Mr. Wojnowski has been protesting outside the Vatican Embassy, on Observatory Circle, just a short drive from Tregaron.

Mr. Wojnowski, now 70 years old, was born in Warsaw, Poland, but grew up in Italy, where his father was a librarian for a Catholic University. On a vacation in the mountains, where he was camping with his two brothers, a local village priest molested him. He was 15 years old at the time, and his incident has haunted him forever since. In 1961, he moved to Canada, and two years later to the US, where he joined the army. In 1968, he married, and had two children with his wife. However, he has had difficulty holding jobs throughout his life, a consequence, he says, of his molestation. In a 2010 article with The Age, he recalled how “It was so traumatizing. I repressed the memory of that moment, but it ruined my life. My temper changed, my appearance changed. I was avoiding people. I felt so insecure, I never talked to anyone.” In 1997, Mr. Wojnowski learned of a child-abuse scandal in Texas, where a child victim of a pedophile priest committed suicide. It was the same priest that abused him in his youth. However, justice wasn’t to be had – the priest had died 10 years earlier, and never faced the consequences of his actions.

“I repressed the memory of that moment, but it ruined my life”

Recently, Mr. Wojnowski’s sign once again rang too true – this time, closer to home. On September 15th, 2017, a high-ranking priest serving as a diplomat in Washington’s Vatican Embassy was recalled to the Holy See, after U.S. prosecutors called for him to face trial in a child pornography investigation. According to a U.S. source familiar with the case, “The diplomat was suspected of possessing, but not producing or disseminating, child pornography including images of prepubescent children”.

Unfortunately, this scandal is hardly surprising. According to the 2004 John Jay report, commissioned by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and funded by the U.S. Conferences of Catholic Bishops, there were 10,667 reported minors who were victims of molestation by clergy members between 1950 and 2002. Nonetheless, the recent scandal is reprehensible, and no less appalling because the priest saw Mr. Wojnowski’s sign on a near daily basis.

Mr. Wojnowski could not be reached for comment.

By Henry Asher