WASHINGTON (DC)
NPR All Things Considered
September 3, 2018
By Sarah Boden
With audio]
Pittsburgh – When Ray Santori was 10, his mother died. His father had died the year before, so an aunt and uncle near Pittsburgh took him in.
Not long after that at Saint Bernadette Church in Monroeville, Pa., Santori met Father William Yockey, who according to the recent grand jury report, sexually assaulted him for about two years.
“I felt that, I mean, I sometimes couldn’t look people in the eye because they would know,” says Santori. “I felt that everybody knew that I was sexually abused.”
Santori says he started drinking and using drugs. He left the house before finishing high school. Since then, he’s been homeless and incarcerated for a time.
“The sexual abuse drove me into such a dark place that it was hard to get a grip on responsibly, reality, work, you know, saving money,” he says.
Today, Santori says he’s 26 months sober and makes a decent living as a carpenter. But economically, the 53-year-old is not in good shape. During more than three decades of addiction, Santori estimates he’s spent up to $2 million on drugs and alcohol.
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