Tim Gioe was abused by a priest as a child. Now his state senator father-in-law is pushing a bill to stop the grooming of kids for exploitation

The wife of a Catholic clergy molestation survivor who helped authorities catch the priest who abused him in his childhood has teamed up with her state senator father to devise a law in Louisiana criminalizing grooming – conduct that increased her husband’s vulnerability before his abuse.

Tim Gioe; his wife, Sarah Connick Gioe; and her father, Louisiana state senator Pat Connick, are at the heart of the legislative saga – as the tight-knit family collectively fights back after being victimized by the clerical molestation scandal that for decades has plagued the Catholic church both in their home state and globally.