Abuse victim returns to Church after 82 years

September 14, 2010

The current issue of Our Sunday Visitor includes a poignant interview with James O’Bryan, who has returned to the Church 82 years after he was molested as a seven-year-old in Louisville. “My mother believed me and took me out of Catholic school and church immediately,” he recalls.

“This has really affected five generations of my family,” O’Bryan continues. “I told you about my grandparents and my parents and me, but there’s also my son and my grandchildren. When my son was born, it never entered my mind to have him baptized or to take him to church. He’s 53, and he doesn’t have any faith. And now my grandson who is 16, it’s the same thing. I can’t tell you how much that has affected me.”

The kindness of a priest ministering to his dying wife led him to return to the Church.

 

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Further information:

• Clerical sex abuse victim tells why he reconciles with Church after eight decades (Our Sunday Visitor)