Massachusetts was the first state to light the fuse toward transparency about clergy abuse in the early 2000s with the Boston Globe Spotlight series. It changed the world. It prompted former attorney general Thomas Reilly to release the findings of his 2003 investigation into the Archdiocese of Boston. It sparked other investigations, including a probe into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia which resulted in a 400-page grand jury report.

My story of abuse at the hands of a Philadelphia parish priest can be found on page 373. The transparency of that work has been crucial in validating my experience as a survivor and is the single biggest factor in recovering my voice and feeling empowered to use it. The continuing failure of the current Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to release a five-year-old report about sexual abuse by clergy in the Springfield, Worcester, and Fall River Dioceses inexcusably inhibits that potential healing for survivors in this state.

I now live in Massachusetts, and over the past three years, I have performed “Unreconciled,” a play about my abuse when I was 13-years-old in 1985. This past April, I had the privilege to perform the play in my Pennsylvania hometown, just a short walk from the church where the abuse occurred. The audiences were filled with my family members, grade school classmates, their parents, high school friends, and strangers who have their own stories of abuse.

Childhood sexual abuse happens not only to a child. It also happens to a community. Rippling into every corner of daily life and festering in dark places we would rather not look, it is a communal trauma that requires a path to communal healing. We reckon with not only what happened, but with what couldn’t happen because of the abuse.

When the Philadelphia grand jury report was released over 20 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined returning home to perform a solo play about my abuse. However, without its release, there is no way I would have had the courage to co-write and perform Unreconciled.

Whenever I experience self-doubt or am questioned about my story, I return to page 373 and find in black-and-white ink the validation I need to continue. Choosing transparency over secrecy alters the life trajectory of survivors and saves countless more children from having to deal with the scars of childhood sexual abuse. Refusing to release the findings of a second Massachusetts grand jury report investigating the dioceses of Worcester, Springfield, and Fall River, Attorney General Andrea Campbell is shrouding the issue of clergy abuse in secrecy, robbing survivors of the validation they desperately need to use their voices, and leaving current communities and children at risk for further abuse.

In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law penned a letter to the Massachusetts Catholic community, assuring the faithful he was taking the appropriate steps to address the scandal that shattered their spiritual world. He wrote, “With all my heart, with every fiber of my being, I pledge to you that I am committed to protect our children and restore the relationship of trust on which the faith life of this Archdiocese is founded.”

In a recent statement addressing Massachusetts survivors who are asking for the release of the latest grand jury report and more transparency and communication into why it is being held up, and by who, Attorney General Campbell offered: “I remain committed to supporting survivors, and I understand and respect their desire to see the results of this investigation made public. My office is actively taking the appropriate steps to share our work to the fullest extent possible, but consistent with our legal obligations, we cannot comment on those efforts publicly. We will share more when we are able to do so.”

When the statements of those who covered up and perpetrated abuse and those who claim to be committed to uncovering that abuse sound this similar, survivors get suspicious. When authority figures don’t choose transparency, they extend protection to predators and the institutions that covered up their crimes. In this case, Massachusetts’ children are left vulnerable and survivors in the Springfield, Worcester, and Fall River dioceses are left to pound sand, yet again.

Jay Sefton lives in Easthampton. He will be performing “Unreconciled” on July 25 at 7 p.m. at the Academy of Music in Northampton.