LOS ANGELES AND OAKLAND — Oakland's new Cathedral of Christ the Light stretches skyward, sheathed in gleaming glass that reveals a delicate skeleton of wood and steel.
Terrie Light has spent more than three years thinking about the elegant structure. She has attended more meetings than she can count about the $190-million cathedral complex while helping to design its most famous garden.
But the 57-year-old has no plans to be a regular visitor to the shadowy corner, with its privet hedges, curved wooden benches and somber dedication: "To those innocents sexually abused by members of the clergy. We remember, and we affirm: Never again."
Light was molested by a priest in the Diocese of Oakland half a century ago. Although being around churches stirs painful memories, she hopes the tribute "might provide solace" to survivors and their family members.
But as she discovered, "what it actually ended up doing was make a lot of people mad."
The survivors had originally envisioned a far different tribute, a big, splashy garden filled with flowers and fountains. What they got after much heated debate was small, simple, downright austere.
Then there were fights over the inscription, Light said, such as the diocese's resistance to the engraved words "clergy abuse." The very existence of such a monument leaves a lot of people "unsettled."
The scandal "is not a thing that's fixed," Light said. "There are so many Catholics who don't want to believe this happened or the extent of it. . . . Other people need to be reminded. Not me."
The "healing garden" was dedicated this fall, the latest in a small sprinkling of tributes to victims of clergy sexual abuse nationwide, controversial monuments that raise more questions than they can possibly answer.
What is the proper way to remember the thousands of victims? What do the tributes accomplish? Are they enough? Why aren't there more?
Cases of clergy sexual abuse have been reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 5,000 priests in the U.S. have been accused. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has paid out more than $2 billion in legal settlements. Six dioceses have filed for bankruptcy.
But there are believed to be fewer than half a dozen monuments across the country, according to survivor advocates.
