By Mary Ormsby Feature Writer Sandro Contenta Feature Writer Tues., April 17, 2018 On a winter afternoon in 2016, Michelle Raftis’s long search brought her to the steps of St. Michael’s Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. She was nervous, and had carefully prepared what she would say to Cardinal Tom Collins. She was done with secrets and lies. Raftis is the daughter of a Catholic priest, a truth the 55-year-old had to hide most of her life. She wanted to know why the church she was raised in allowed a priest to abandon his child. “I wanted a written apology from the church,” Raftis says. In Canada and around the world, children of priests have emerged from the shadows to press the Vatican — and their local dioceses — to recognize they exist. Article Continued Below The Vatican appears to have no data on the number of clergy who break their vows of celibacy and father … [Read more...] about Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy when they’re ordained. But when they break that vow, their children are left to live a lie