It wasn’t a catharsis for me, though when I told my wife before we got married, it was a little bit.
What was life changing in a very different way, was my emotion when I saw him those years later as an old man, and I felt no hatred.
It really hit me. I was able to forgive, and I must tell you, that is a powerful thing. To realize you have the power to forgive. Nobody can MAKE you forgive, but...you yourself can do it, in the face of all that would run contrary to your being able to do it.
It changed me to have that feeling. It made me believe in Christ.
To believe in a gracious God like that is a revolution. Sometimes we punish ourselves worse than we ever punish the people who did us wrong and that we now bitterly hate. When God wants to forgive and we buck Him, the results can knock us around badly.
It is not just a Catholic priest thing, it happens in many situations where someone has secluded access to children. A creep will creep in, and disaster results.