How can something that feels holy also be harmful? What does grooming look like when it happens to adults?
In Episode Two of Descent Into Light, “Bride Grooming,” Sr. Danielle Victoria shares the confusion and inner turmoil she experienced under the direction of a trusted priest. What seemed like guidance and intimacy with God gradually became a space where boundaries blurred and spiritual authority was misused.
This episode explores:
How denial can protect us and keep us from facing abuse
The subtle ways grooming—of both individuals and communities—can appear in adult spiritual settings
The danger of spiritual bypassing: using faith to move past warning signs
How vulnerability, devotion, and trust, all things necessary and good in the spiritual life, can also be exploited by predatory leaders
Licensed mental health counselor Regina Boyd explains the protective—and sometimes disorienting—role of denial in the grief process.
Benedictine monk and spiritual director Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB helps listeners understand the sacred trust required in spiritual direction and how its violation can be profoundly damaging.
This episode illuminates the complexity of abuse in faith contexts and how something life-giving can be misused, leaving survivors to untangle what was sacred from what was manipulative.
Stay with us as we release a new episode each week, for eight weeks, moving through the stages of grief toward hard-earned hope.
