A devout man confronts the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and takes on the Catholic Church in an attempt to find eternal closure. 

SYNOPSIS:

I was compelled to write this story after dating David for two years and learning the horrors of his childhood. How could the smartest, kindest man I’ve ever meet be a survivor of a pedophile priest and a violent father?

Who is David? He’s that guy everyone crowds around at a party with his witty quick banter. He will make you laugh and ask you “what makes you magical?” Competitive by nature and with a photographic memory, he can out talk anyone. But underneath, there is a dark history on his upbringing, one that he has suppressed. There is an inner rage over his loss of innocence. David is always one to stand up to bullies because he knows the pain of abuse. His early childhood was filled with sexual and physical abuse. That is until a 12-year-old David almost kills his dad in a hunting incident.

Moving often in his teen years, David, the survivor, finds ways to bring food into the house when his mother stops buying groceries. He becomes a drug dealer. Each move brings more isolation to the family and when they land in California, David learns to surf from members of THE Mansion Family. He excels at baseball and gets a full college scholarship. But he is forced to return home when he blows out his elbow in his Junior year. Eventually he breaks free, marries and is crushed when his first child is stillborn. His anger issues return. David receives an answer from God when his fourth child is miraculously healed, and he follows through with a promise to go to counseling. But it is too late for his marriage. The trauma of his childhood is exposed in years of counseling, including helping his dad cover up a murder and a priest taking him to gay bath houses.

As he moves deeper into therapy, David decides to file a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, going before the Catholic Review Board. His pain and fighting continue until he suffers a massive heart attack. David returns to counseling and hires an aggressive attorney where they find three more victims. Finally, David sees progress with his stress and pain levels as he experiences validation. He finds a new level of comfort in his personal and professional career. As his legal team waits for legislation to pass in Florida regarding statutes, David has another heart attack and dies.

I wrote this project to bring life to the argument for extending legal precedent on filing abuse cases, because it is only with time that many can come to terms with the abuse and face their abusers, including the Catholic Church. But this isn’t only about abuse, it’s the story of a man who never lost his love of God.