Seeking a Confession, Part #9: Confirmation

By Steve Brown
WGRZ
September 5, 2018

https://superiorcatholicherald.org/blog/bishop-messages/a-letter-from-bishop-powers-regarding-current-abuse-issues-in-the-catholic-church/

What Jim Graham, has believed in his heart for 25-years is confirmed. A deceased Oblate order priest who he never met is Graham's biological father.

It was the first day of classes at Anna Maria College. It’s a small Catholic school in the hills of central Massachusetts.

It’s here Jim Graham came to learn some test results.

Two months earlier, he sat near the grave of Father Thomas Sullivan to watch the exhumation of the remains of an Oblate order priest. Graham had gotten unprecedented permission to dig up Sullivan’s body to obtain tissue samples for a DNA paternity test.

For a quarter century, Graham has spent thousands of dollars and untolled hours gathering documents which tell a convincing story, that the priest Graham never met is his biological father. But all of the evidence is admittedly circumstantial which bothered Graham.

“When I tell my story, there’s always some hesitation because we didn’t have it validated. Some people could question if he was really my father,” he explained.