Come rain, or snow or wind, he is there every day with his banner denouncing the pedophile scandals shaking the Roman Catholic church. For 12 years, John Wojnowski has silently protested outside the Vatican embassy here.At rush hour, this small, 67-year-old man, his face reddened by the sun, shakes his banner in the direction of the commuters who come pouring down Massachusetts Avenue in their cars.
"The Vatican hides pedophiles," the signs says.
Since the scandals have resurfaced in recent days, swirling around whether Pope Benedict XVI failed to act, many drivers have honked their horns in support or raised their fists in the air in Wojnowski's direction.
One man parked his car a ways down the road and came to shake Wojnowski's hand.
"You're the man staying here for 12 years? Congratulations. You defend your right to free speech," he said, standing before the yellow and white Vatican flag that flies on embassy's facade.
Wojnowski, a Pole born in 1943, has a very personal reason for bearing a grudge toward the church. He says he was sexually molested at the age of 15 by the village priest in Cuzzago, in Italy's Piedmont region, where Wojnowski's family settled after World War II.
"He called me to his home under the pretext of teaching me Latin. As soon as I sat down, he started touching my knee and then told me to masturbate," he said. Wojnowski said he ran away when the priest began undressing.
"He must have molested many children. When I went to his home, other children were laughing. I couldn't understand why," he said.
For young Wojnowski, it was the start of 40 hellish years.
"It was so traumatizing. I repressed the memory of that moment, but I ruined my life. My temper changed, my appearance changed. I was a happy boy, after that I started looking like Woody Allen," he said.
"I was avoiding people. I felt so insecure, I never talked to anyone."
In the 1960s, Wojnowski emigrated to Canada, then to the United States, where he became a citizen. During a visit to Poland, he was married in the church to a woman who did not know of his past. They had two children before divorcing.
Then in 1997, a scandal in Texas in which a child victim of a pedophile priest committed suicide jolted Wojnowski like electric-shock treatment.
"I realized that moment (when he was 15) had changed my life. My father had two PhDs, and I was washing dishes in DC restaurants. I found that I had become unconsciously suicidal," he said.
He tried to contact a priest.
"It took me 20 minutes before I could say: 'I was molested by a priest when I was 15,'" he said.
The church provided therapy, he said.
"I went there three or four times. But the psychologist was a Catholic, very religious. I felt uncomfortable," he said.
There followed an exchange of letters with the diocese, which informed him that the case was closed, the priest who allegedly molested him having died 10 years earlier.
Many Americans were awarded damages in similar cases, but not Wojnowski, whose alleged assault occurred in Italy.
Then in April 1988, at age 55, Wojnowski took early retirement and planted himself outside the Vatican embassy with a sign proclaiming: "My life was ruined by a Catholic pedophile priest."
The first reactions were negative. He was targeted with eggs, insults, obscene gestures and death threats. His Internet site was hacked. Then after 2002, following a new scandal in the Boston area, expressions of support began to outweigh the jeers.
"All I'm asking for is a financial reparation," he said, initially estimating the damage at 240,000 dollars. "After all these years, I think it's worth a little more."
Wojnowski was unmoved by the apologies made by Pope Benedict when he visited the United States in 2008.
"He didn't apologize to me. The police moved me one block away," he said.
The Vatican embassy could not be reached for comment on Wojnowski's accusations.
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SIC: AFP