Precarious - by Patrick C Goujon (Hardcover)

About the Book

"I never imagined how much sexual assault on a child could destroy their adult life. I was shocked by the scandal of such crimes, especially when they are perpetrated by men of the Church. That was my view until one day suddenly it came back to me what a priest had done to me during my childhood. I had been locked in denial for almost forty years. Because I had complained and finally spoke, I thought I could heal, but everything fell apart. In the rubble of my history, came a nagging question: how could I have chosen to become a priest?" This is the blub from the French text of Priáere, de ne pas abuser, a memoir by Jesuit Patrick C. Goujon about his recovered memory as an adult that he had been abused by a priest as a boy. The book is written in a very poetic French. It was published last year by âEditions du Seuil and has been reviewed very prominently in France, including in Le Monde, Le journal du Dimanche, La Croix, and L'est Republicain"--

Book Synopsis

A Jesuit priest's memoir about recovering his memory of clerical abuse as a child

In October 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church released its report detailing consistent disregard of survivors and the callous and horrifying "lack of outrage" from bishops and other Catholic leaders. What this report does not tell is the story of the priests who themselves are survivors of clerical abuse and their struggles.

At the age of forty-eight, Patrick C. Goujon, SJ, suddenly remembered what a priest had done to him, for four long years, beginning when he was seven years of age. Locked in denial for almost forty years, he finally spoke out. He thought he could then heal. Yet his whole life started falling apart. He questioned why his memory had been suppressed for such a long time. And he asked himself: How could I have chosen to become a priest myself? In Precarious, he tells the story of how he learned to survive the shock of this revelation and to live as a believer. His story is a healing journey and a path to finding support in spirituality to recover from child abuse.

About the Author

Patrick C. Goujon, SJ, a professor of theology and spirituality at Centre Sèvres, the Jesuit school of graduate theology in Paris; a fellow at Campion Hall-Oxford (UK); and the chief editor of the journal Recherches de Science Religieuse.

Gerald J. McGlone, SJ, senior research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. Previously, he was the chief psychologist and the director of counseling services at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.