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Sacrificed Podcast by Chris O'LearySacrificed is a podcast about the aftermath of the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

Sacrificed picks up where the movie SPOTLIGHT...

...left off.

Just as my story does.


"I listened to your podcast today and I was blown away. Every Catholic needs to listen to it."

- The Angry Catholic Show

Sacrificed Podcast

In addition to the core episodes of Sacrificed, I've also put together a number of supplemental episodes.

You can listen to Sacrificed thru most of the major podcast providers, Anchor.com, and this web site.

Purpose

With Sacrificed, I address and try to answer the big question...

What happened next?

...as well as all the others...

  • How did it feel?
  • What was it like? To try to get help?
  • How did it all affect you?

...while staying at a high level and NOT getting into the worst, gross, terrible stuff.

You don't want to hear about it.

And I don't want to talk about it.

Not outside of therapy, at least.

My Story

My story starts, or rather picks up, with a March 2002 article in the New York Times article about the Catholic sex abuse crisis, in which my favorite priest — and one of my favorite PEOPLE — from my childhood was named as an abuser, kicking off my own personal SPOTLIGHT, an experience I discuss in SPOTLIGHT & Me & Since.


Again, the focus of Sacrificed is NOT on what happened to me as a CHILD.

I do NOT discuss the gross, child sexual abuse stuff.

Because it's not even the worst part of the story.

Instead, Sacrificed focuses on what happened — what was DONE — to me as an ADULT. When I went to the Catholic Church for help in 2002.

And things got REALLY bad.

What It Was Like

Sacrificed explains what it was like to have your favorite priest — and one of your favorite PEOPLE — named as an abuser in one of the original Boston Globe articles or one of the thousands of articles that followed, in my case in the New York Times...

What it was like to discover that you were knowingly sacrificed, as I discuss in the episode entitled The Program.


Why children remain at risk, and from whom, as I make clear in Stika, Predation, and Change.


When I, like too many other survivors, in contravention of Vos Estis, Pope Francis' bill of rights for survivors, was subjected to what I call the Abuse of the Abused at the hands of My Friend the Cardinal, other members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and their enablers.

NOT the Worst Stuff

Each episode of Sacrificed explores and explains — with no punches pulled, no holds barred and, above all else, no enabling — the misdeeds and broken promises of the Catholic Church, including Vos Estis, the Pope's bill of rights for survivors.

Again, let me be clear that the focus of Sacrificed is on the Abuse of the Abused, NOT the worst stuff; what happened — what was done — to me when I was an ADULT and tried to get help from my Archdiocese of St. Louis.

NOT the terrible, gross stuff that was done to me as a CHILD.

NOT the WHAT.

Rather, the focus of Sacrificed is on HOW and WHY the worst stuff happened.

FAQ

If you have a question about what happened to me, I've started a list of...

About Me

I was sexually exploited, abused, and assaulted — raped — by a priest. Then, when I went to my Archdiocese for help, that's when things got REALLY bad.

When the Abuse of the Abused began.

At the heart of Sacrificed, is a simple, but critical, question.

If the Catholic Church can do what it allowed to be done to me as a child, and what it did to me as an adult, starting with ignoring and shunning me, openly, without fear of accountability or consequence, at the Mass of Reparation, as the cover art for my podcast shows, then what else can they justify?

Rationalize?

Still.

When it comes to innocent children, most of all.

I don't know.

What I do know is that I refuse to allow what happened to me to happen to anyone else.

I'll be DAMNED if I allow what happened to me to happen to anyone else.

The Problem

The problem is that the treatment of too many survivors reflects a lingering, callous indifference on the part of the Catholic Church.

Epitomized by my treatment at my archdiocese's Mass of Reparation in September 2018.

Mass of Reparation

Click to Enlarge

Despite SPOTLIGHT, the Dallas Charter, Protecting God's Children,the USCCB's promise of Assistance Coordinators, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, and Vos Estis Lux Mundi, the Pope's bill of rights for survivors.

Since SPOTLIGHT

The movie SPOTLIGHT exposed the horrible truth of the early years of the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

But what about survivors?

How much did SPOTLIGHT — the events the movie chronicled and the movie itself — accomplish?

Really?

I'm a survivor of the Catholic sex abuse crisis and I'm in a unique position to answer that question because my story picks up literally where SPOTLIGHT left off.

WANT

The sex abuse crisis was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Catholic Church. One Catholics want to be over.

To move on from.

However, that impatience, while understandable, isn't appropriate.

Not if you care about survivors. And justice.

And children.

Supporting Resources

Sins of the Fathers is my collection of essays about the Catholic sex abuse crisis and my role in it. Some of the more important resources, when it comes to understanding my story, include...

GoFundMe

If you'd like to help support my efforts to create this podcast, and expose the Abuse of the Abused by the Catholic Church, as well as The Program — or to help me just eat and pay my bills while I'm spending my time on this project — I've set up a GoFundMe...
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