Top Highlights

• There are specific techniques sex offenders and other predators use to fool people. First and most important is setting up a double life. Many offenders will deliberately establish themselves as the kind of person who wouldn’t do that kind of thing.
• I lived a double life.… I would do kind and generous things for people. I would give families money that did not have any money that was not from the church treasury, it was from my own bank accounts. I would support them in all the ways that I could. Talk to them, encourage them. I would go to nursing homes. Talk with the elderly. Pray with the el...
• Even violent predators know enough to keep their behavior in check publicly—most of them anyway. The lives they lead in public may be exemplary, almost surreal in their rectitude.
• The term “priest,” like “doctor,” carries a connotation of someone who is dedicated to helping others, someone who is there to provide solace and comfort. Although a double life can be practiced in any profession, it has been easier for priests to convince people they are good than it is for, say, used car salespeople or lawyers.
• Sex offenders are well aware of our propensity for making assumptions about private behavior from public presentation. They use that information deliberately and carefully to set up a double life.