Tucson man leads effort to help sex abuse survivors at Papal Summit

TUCSON (AZ)
KOLD News 13

March 3, 2019

By Heather Janssen

As he held a photo of his 12-year-old self on Sunday afternoon, Tim Lennon, recounted the memories of violent rape and abuse by his priest in Iowa.

The Tucson man is a survivor.

“The priest that abused me used to take me to baseball games, to the park, to a movie, and molestation was always a part of that,” he explained.

Lennon repressed the memories for decades. The alleged abuse happened when he was 12-years-old. But one day the memories of trauma came flooding back.

“I basically froze. I didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything, and the memories were buried for 30 years,” he said. “When at twelve … I couldn’t fight back. Now I can.”

He’s turned the anger he felt over the abuse into a passion for helping survivors everywhere.

He now leads the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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