PHILADELPHIA — Just east of the front doors of St. Cecilia’s Church in the Fox Chase neighborhood, there sits a memorial to victims of sexual abuse — a rare sight not only in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but at churches nationwide.

Consisting of a stone pillar embellished with a light and a blue wreath, in a parish that has reckoned with its own history of abuse, the memorial features messages of support for victims engraved into its sides.

“This light burns to honor all victims of sexual abuse by clergy and others at our parish, throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and throughout the nation,” an inscription reads. “May their light burn brightly as we protect our children and all the vulnerable.”

The Rev. Chris Walsh, pastor of St. Cecilia’s, announced the memorial’s completion in a church newsletter late last month, and plans to hold a “brief period of prayer” at it Friday. The church, he said, has not widely advertised the memorial.

“It is a quiet way to honor a very painful period of time in many lives,” said Walsh, who has been pastor at St. Cecilia’s since 2022.

It was not immediately clear when work on the memorial began, or whether it was created with the knowledge or support of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. An archdiocesan representative did not respond to requests for comment.

Walsh, however, said that the memorial was suggested by “a parishioner,” and that he worked with clergy sexual abuse victims and their families on the wording of the inscriptions. The memorial itself is a former pedestal for a statue of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, from whom the church takes its name. The pedestal became available after the statue of St. Cecilia was reinstalled over the church’s doors following waterproofing work, Walsh said.

“I know it does not solve the huge problems that have been caused,” Walsh said of the memorial. “But it is something.”

A ‘brutal’ history

The memorial’s arrival comes more than 20 years after a wide-ranging 2005 Philadelphia grand jury report described a former priest at St. Cecilia’s as “one of the Archdiocese’s most brutal abusers.” That priest, James Brzyski, was assigned to the parish from 1981 to 1984 — his second assignment with the archdiocese — and was believed to have abused more than 100 children during his seven years of active service.

Ordained in 1977, Brzyski arrived at St. Cecilia’s from St. John the Evangelist in Lower Makefield, Bucks County. In 1984, after a whistleblower priest gave archdiocesan officials evidence Brzyski had abused boys in Lower Makefield, Brzyski admitted to “several acts of sexual misconduct” at that parish, church records later showed. He was sent to a treatment center for priests in Maryland, where a clinician declared him a pedophile.

In 1985, Brzyski walked out of treatment and abandoned ministry. Church officials never reported him to law enforcement and told St. Cecilia’s parishioners he had left for medical reasons, The Inquirer previously reported. Like the 62 other priests named in the 2005 grand jury report, he never faced criminal charges for his alleged abuse because by the time it came to light, the statute of limitations had expired. He was defrocked in 2005.

During his later life, Brzyski led something of a nomadic lifestyle, with addresses in Virginia, Wisconsin, California, and Texas. He died in 2017 in a Texas motel at 66, about a month after being confronted about the abuse allegations by an Inquirer reporter. No foul play was suspected.

And though Brzyski was believed to have scores of victims, few have come forward publicly. Among them were St. Cecilia’s parishioners John Delaney, who died of a drug overdose in 2022; Jim Cunningham, who died by suicide in 2017; and Jimmy Spoerl, who died in 2016 after battling diabetes and other illnesses.

‘A meaningful effort’

Gerad Argeros, 55, a survivor of Brzyski’s abuse at St. Cecilia’s in the 1980s, said the memorial is likely to have many meanings for community members — negative and positive. Argeros, who now lives in Brooklyn and is known for Fox Chase Boy, a documentary short and one-man show detailing his story, said he had not decided if he would attend Friday’s prayer gathering.

“What I can say for sure is, there wasn’t anything there before, and now there is,” Argeros said. “I have been driving by that building for 45 years. I am curious to feel what is different now for me.”

Ultimately, however, Argeros said that his opinion on the memorial as a survivor pales in comparison to what the St. Cecilia’s community comes to make of it. After all, he noted, he is not the only parishioner who suffered abuse there, and the effects spread far beyond the victims themselves — to parents, partners, children, siblings, and friends. That the memorial exists at all, he said, is “remarkable,” and Walsh deserves credit.

“This community has been begging for something, and if this is what we get, then right now, this will have to do,” Argeros said.

Memorials for victims of clergy sexual abuse are rare in the United States, though not unprecedented. It was not immediately clear if there are other others at churches in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but Inquirer research did not reveal any.

There are several around the country, however, including one at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Mendham, N.J. Erected in 2004, that memorial is largely considered to be the country’s first memorial to victims of clergy sexual abuse. Since its creation, the memorial has been vandalized and rebuilt several times.

But as far as the St. Cecilia’s memorial is concerned, Argeros said he believes its intentions are to be respected.

“It is a meaningful effort that I think will meet a need in that community,” he said. “For me, that is sacred.”

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