As an 11-year-old, Len Prazych didn’t have the ability or the vocabulary to understand the way he felt. Was it guilt? Confusion? Sadness? His parents, who knew about Prazych’s sexual assault at the hands of a Catholic priest, remained silent, leaving Prazych to grapple with a traumatizing event and the aftermath that has lasted a lifetime.

“It is a difficult subject, and it should be spoken about,” said Prazych, who is now 65 years old. “It’s easy enough to sweep it under the rug, but it is that kind of behavior and messaging that has, in part, created the crisis that we had and that we still have to some extent.”

In his riveting, candid new book, My Fathers: Letters of Healing on a Quest for the Truth, Prazych shares a trove of intimate letters to his recently deceased father and one letter to his long-deceased priest in his attempt to come to terms with what really happened on a sweltering August night in 1971 in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the events of the morning after.

Prazych was an 11-year-old altar boy when a 15-second incident in his parents’ bedroom forever altered the course of his life and the trusting relationships he had with his two fathers: his biological one and the beloved parish priest who molested him.

“I was ‘the one who got away,’” Prazych explained. “I said something, and my abuser was gone. I’m sharing my story to heal myself and to help heal others who may find some solace by reading my story and, perhaps, by sharing theirs.”

Unlike salacious tales and tabloid headlines describing multiple incidents of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of priests, My Fathers is, ultimately, a story of hope born out of Prazych’s desire for understanding and healing.

Clear, respectful and virtually profanity-free, My Fathers will strike a personal chord with survivors of sexual abuse, their parents or guardians, and anyone appalled by the behaviors of predatory priests and the protection they’ve received in the past from the Catholic Church.

“It’s never too late to ‘say something,’ share your secret, help stop abusers, get justice where possible and make everyone aware so no one else, especially children, have to suffer sexual abuse and trauma,” Prazych added.

About the Author

Len Prazych has been a professional writer for most of his adult life, first as a freelancer, then as owner of his public relations, marketing and advertising company, then as editor-in-chief of a weekly trade magazine. He enjoyed a non-traditional education, earning both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology at age 35, then his master’s degree at 45 in the Psychology of Narrative, during which he researched and experienced the remarkable power of writing to heal physically and emotionally. Prazych’s thesis on writing therapy helped him through his divorce at age 47, as well as the experience he had when he was 11, which he shares in My Fathers: Letters of Healing on a Quest for the Truth, his first book. Born and raised in New Jersey, he now lives in upstate New York.

For more information, please visit https://lenprazych.com/, or connect with him on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LenPrazych.Author) or Instagram (@lenprazych).

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/My-Fathers-Letters-Healing-Quest/dp/B0CJSVTH1Z/

My Fathers: Letters of Healing on a Quest for the Truth

ISBN-10: ‎1962204804

ISBN-13: ‎978-1962204804

Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and IngramSpark.com

PRAISE FOR LEN PRAZYCH:

“Leonard Prazych’s beautiful memoir My Fathers tells, in the form of letters to his father and his priest, how one incident of molestation can color a lifetime. Set in the richly-observed, gritty New Jersey city of Bayonne, My Fathers is an engrossing examination of love and betrayal, one that is not to be missed. Highly recommended!”

• Eric Maisel, author of The Van Gogh Blues

“Len Prazych has written a remarkably powerful memoir in the form of letters to his recently deceased father. Len’s ability to heal from the trauma of abuse and betrayal by using the written word is truly transformative! When appropriate, I will recommend the technique to my patients and clients.”

• Dawn LaCarte, (MCLC, BSW, CASAC)

“I didn’t put it down, reading it from beginning to end in one sitting. It was riveting – full of pathos, anger, humor, resentment, love, guilt, nostalgia, shame – namely the entire spectrum of human emotions!”

• Dr. Annette Freund

“In reading the first few pages of My Fathers I was reminded of the relationship I had with my own father. And while my experience was very different, the feelings I experienced were very much the same. It was impossible for me to read this memoir in the third person. Through my smiles and tears, I found myself reconciling the relationship I had with my own deceased father and will likely write a letter or two to him.”

• Steve Conklin, Entrepreneur, U.S. Olympic Coach and Motivational Speaker

“I commend Len on the publication of his memoir. His profound, original and daring way of processing and integrating complex traumatic experience that became a destructive and at the same time a creative force in his life.”

• Mirko Pavlek, LCSW-R