Survivor Profiles

I grew up in a small town and was a raised a devout Catholic. I attended every Sunday mass and all of the extra masses that I could. I was an alter server and when I wasn’t serving mass I sang up front.  I attended Sunday and Wednesday school. I participated in a variety of youth retreats, which included going to Mexico to help build a church, helping fix up a home for discarded pregnant teens etc. I wanted to become a nun. For about five years I went to a convent for a couple of days every summer to see if I was called to be in the sisterhood.

I first noticed SNAP when a came across a pamphlet in 1995. I thought, similar abuse happened to me. I began to remember being molested by a priest when I was thirteen. This prompted my participation in SNAP support groups twice a month for almost three years. After a while I became more focused on my family and dropped away from SNAP. Within a couple of years I became the father of twin girls who are now thirteen.