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Children of Catholic Priests Live with Secrets and Sorrow

posted on August 17, 2017

The Boston Globe’s Michael Rezendes profiles the unplanned, abandoned children of Catholic priests. He writes, “The sons and daughters of priests often grow up without the love and support of their fathers, and are often pressured or shamed into keeping the existence of the relationship a secret. They are the unfortunate victims of a church that has, for nearly 900 years, forbidden priests to marry or have sex, but has never set rules for what priests or bishops must do when a clergyman fathers a child.” Chiara Villar, who was forced to be isolated from her father, a Canadian priest, said, “I started to take the blame on myself. I started to contemplate whether I was even important enough to live. I started to cut myself because I loved this man so much.”

Read at The Boston Globe