Ariel Sabar profiles John Wojnowski, the man devoted to protesting outside the Vatican Embassy in Washington, DC. As a young boy, Wojnowski was sexually abused by a priest:
Almost every day for the past 14 years, Wojnowski has stood on the sidewalk outside
the nunciature with signs familiar to any Washingtonian traveling on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest DC: MY LIFE WAS RUINED BY A CATHOLIC PEDOPHILE PRIEST or CATHOLICS COWARDS or VATICAN HIDES PEDOPHILES. He carries his signs, like some cross, for hours. He pivots when the stoplight changes, to face the onrush. He walks up to the windows of tour buses so passengers can see.
But his crusade hasn't exactly brought him peace:
The more time I spent with Wojnowski, the more I came to see the alleged abuse as a double injury. It hadn’t just claimed the life he might have lived. It had also stolen his ability to trust the very people—lawyers, therapists—perhaps best able to win him some measure of justice, or peace. “People tell me I’m fighting the good fight,” he said one evening. But was its monotony, its ceaselessness—its single line of fire—part of the affliction or part of the cure? Were there other paths to redemption?
(Photo: John Wojnowski stands with a sign outside the Vatican embassy on April 2, 2010 in Washington. By Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)
The Dish 