A young girl, living on her own, working for the school, scared stiff is not going to think rationally, especially if she is suffering some kind of PTSD. You say what she should have done not only as a man, but as someone totally disassociated from the trauma. Why do any abused women stay with their abusers?
In this case it was her parish, her support system, her salary... everything at stake. It is impossible to judge someone's actions here.
I'm not saying I believe or disbelieve the story... but I will remember to tell my daughters to keep their guard up.
I didn't see this before and it can explain what happened. The key is "A young girl,
living on her own", with everyone around her against her
"her parish, her support system". In my culture daughters lived at home till they married. If they worked, they still lived at home and worked with a relative or a trusted Catholic friend of the family that would watch over her like the parents. This is why I say the daughters should stay at home till they marry. In my eyes, Americans trad parents are like snakes, they lay their eggs and then let them fend for themselves. This is an American thing, it is not Catholic, and they have spread all over the world. American Trads have their children and send them off to be taught by others, and then boarding school in another state at 12 years of age. They are worse than the secularists who keep their children home from K-12, then send them off to college at 18 and up.
I can believe now that this could have happened had the girl had no one to turn to; no parents to turn to, or parents, parish, and support system that worship priests as gods, rather than as men.