Precarious

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.