The piece is anchored by a 1982 letter written by Margaret Gallant to Cardinal Madeiros, protesting his silence and lack of appropriate action. Finding material – both content, and in respect to those involved – was a major concern, but court testimony was an unexpectedly useful source because the persons involved have already had the experience of it being in public. “It was just very clear to me that this is where we begin,” Shepard said of the letter. “Among other things, the letter is such a beautiful text. It really had a very clear expression of the emotional but also the some of the theological and the practical considerations for this particular situation. And it’s a source of tremendous hope. This was a grandmother who stood up to the most powerful authority in her life in at that time. That is a tremendous source of hope for me, that someone can and did do that.”

Hope, like orchestration, plays imperceptibly virtuosic in the piece. Shepard reads the text aloud and cues the musicians according to how the listeners are reacting to the material. The piece can contract or expand by about 20 minutes. The tenor and alto saxophones demand a rare technical ability to enter constantly from nothing. Steel-string acoustic guitars played with ebows, without volume pedals, demand muscle control to hold single notes for up to five minutes without changing. There are scores, but the shifting cues demand constant attention.

The emotional labor is also high. The musicians practice sitting together and settling into nonverbal communication to create the emotional foundation to support incoming participants. “We noticed very clearly last workshop that there’s a ‘container’ for each experience,” Shepard explained. “When that container is really strong and supportive, then the experience can go deeper. So we last time, when you were there, there was a very strong container and it happened very quickly. We don’t know exactly, but it has to do with everyone who is in the room.” Shepard uses his Somatic Experiencing training (a method founded by Dr. Peter A. Levine to work with people overcoming trauma) to sense nervous energy in the room and direct the flow of performance.

People have shared astonishing stories with Shepard, and survivors, priests, Catholic educators and school board members, and people without any direct connection have attended the workshops and affirmed their value. “Actually, we found that those outside the church might find it even more beneficial for them, because they’re often one step removed from the events,” Shepard explains, noting that such outsiders still are impacted by what has transpired. “In our culture at large, we have a crisis of corruption. And what do you do about it? How do you deal with it? And no one really knows. We don’t have a lot of solutions… but I do see an opportunity to begin to work through that, and part of the process is actually just seeing it as it is.”