I am a 55 year-old man, married for 33 years, and the father of 5 children . . . Even though I received professional counseling for [abuse in my childhood], I continued to suffer from the feelings of shame, isolation and loneliness. It seemed that these things were never going to change.

I had never revealed my own abuse at the hands of a priest that started with the "grooming" process in 1980 and culminated with the first physical, sexual contact in August 1982 . . . I was paralyzed with fear and confusion. And of course, which is typical, I blamed myself.

I am a 48 year old mother with three grown children and three aborted children in Heaven . . . Once I arrived, with much fear and trepidation, and began to enter into the [retreat] process, I cried tears from depths I didn't know I possessed.