Sundays After: For survivor, routine brings some relief

THE VILLAGES (FL)
Associated Press

December 19, 2019

By Wong Maye-E and Juliet Linderman

[This article with photographs is part of the series Sundays After.]

It’s been nine years since the trial that nearly killed John Vai.

He sat for depositions by church attorneys who called him a greedy liar and accused him of enticing the priest. He saw a secret he’d spent 40 years trying to forget splashed across the pages of his hometown newspaper. In a Delaware courtroom, over six weeks, he laid bare the details of his sexual abuse as a teen by the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, a religion teacher at St. Elizabeth’s in Wilmington.

He became so angry, so manic, his behavior so erratic, his children stayed far away from him. He stopped sleeping.

The landmark jury award was hard won: $3 million from the parish and $60 million from DeLuca, though the destitute former priest was unable to pay. He was defrocked in 2008 after a conviction for molesting a relative.

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