ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses Kathleen Dwyer's experience in sexual abuse. Her father was a 'functioning' alcoholic who was abusive to the entire family. Dwyer's father began sexually abusing her, but it was always said that they had a 'special relationship'. She grew up in a white, very religious, poor, working class, Irish Catholic family whose Catholicism mattered more than anything else. As she began to questions the cultural and religious assumptions, she thought about breaking the silence about her abuse. Dwyer graduated from college, celebrated her third anniversary of sobriety, and eventually became the director of two residential substance abuse treatment programs for women, 90" of whom were survivors of sexual abuse. On January 21, 2002, the Boston Globe broke the story of the crimes of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston. She had started to attend Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) meetings.