Terms of Service

By accessing or using GraceBook (“the Platform”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use the Platform.

These Terms are a legally binding agreement between you and Liber Gratiae Inc., a New Jersey nonprofit corporation that operates GraceBook (“GraceBook,” “we,” “us,” or “the Corporation”). They apply to all users of the Platform, including seekers, mentors, and visitors.

By creating an account, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

GraceBook is a digital platform that connects anyone seeking spiritual guidance with Catholic spiritual mentors — including priests, religious brothers and sisters, permanent deacons, and lay mentors. You do not need to be Catholic to use it; the guidance offered is Catholic.

GraceBook provides the technology infrastructure for these connections. We are not a healthcare provider, counseling service, crisis hotline, or substitute for professional mental health care. We do not provide sacramental ministry of any kind.

GraceBook is a program of Liber Gratiae Inc., a lay-run civil nonprofit corporation. It is not a diocese, a religious institute, or any ecclesiastical body, and it does not act with the authority of the Catholic Church. All mentors sign the Mentor Agreement before they may be listed. See section 5.

To use GraceBook, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Not live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland
• Provide accurate and truthful information during registration
• Not have been previously suspended or removed from the Platform
• Comply with all applicable laws in your jurisdiction

GraceBook is not offered to anyone living in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. We refuse registrations that arrive from those countries, and we may close an account whose holder lives in one of them.

Additional Requirements for Mentors

• Read and sign the Mentor Agreement, and abide by it
• Hold whatever permission your state of life requires you to have, and tell us within seven days if it is withdrawn, restricted, suspended, or lapses
• Remain in good standing with the authority who gave it
• Describe your own formation and credentials accurately on your profile

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
• You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.
• You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.
• You may not create multiple accounts or share your account with others.
• We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

Account information is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

GraceBook does not verify mentors. Before a mentor may be listed, they sign the Mentor Agreement, in which they attest in their own name that they will accompany and teach in accordance with Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium; that they hold whatever permission their state of life requires; that they have the formation and experience this work asks for; and that they will use it for the good of the person they accompany. A person at GraceBook reads every application before a profile is published.

Those are the mentor's statements about themselves. GraceBook conducts no independent investigation of any of them:

• GraceBook does not conduct background checks, does not verify safe environment or VIRTUS certification, and does not independently confirm ordination, faculties, permission to minister, or formation credentials.
• Signing the Mentor Agreement is not an endorsement, recommendation, certification, or warranty by GraceBook of any mentor or of their fitness for ministry.
• It is not a guarantee of the quality, accuracy, or effectiveness of any spiritual guidance provided.
• Mentors are independent individuals, not employees, agents, or representatives of GraceBook.
• The spiritual guidance provided by mentors reflects their own training, charism, and pastoral judgment.
• GraceBook does not control, direct, or supervise the content of spiritual conversations.

Responsibility for the truth of a mentor's attestations rests with that mentor. Responsibility for evaluating their fitness for ministry rests with the ecclesial authority competent for them, whom GraceBook does not contact as part of any review.

A mentor who breaks the Mentor Agreement may be suspended immediately and without prior notice, removed from the Platform temporarily or permanently, and reported to their bishop, religious superior, pastor, or institute. Where GraceBook is told by any of those authorities that a mentor should not be serving, or where a mentor's permission is withdrawn, restricted, or lapses, their access is suspended.

This section applies to mentors. Seekers have no public page and are never listed in the directory.

When your application is approved, GraceBook publishes a profile page for you and lists you in the mentor directory. That page is public: it can be opened by anyone who has its address, with no account and no sign-in. It shows the information and media you add to your profile, once a reviewer has approved them.

You control that content. Everything on the page is what you wrote or uploaded, and you may edit or remove any of it at any time. You may also pause bookings, which removes you from the directory without affecting your approval.

Search engines are a separate choice. Your page is not offered to search engines unless you elect it. That setting sits on your profile editor, starts switched off, and is never switched on for you. While it is off you remain in the directory and remain bookable — declining affects nothing on the Platform itself.

You may change that election at any time. Switching it off asks search engines to remove the page and they generally do so within weeks. GraceBook cannot remove copies held by third parties, including search engine caches, web archives, and anyone who saved the page.

If your account is closed, suspended, or your authorization is withdrawn, your profile page and directory listing cease to be available immediately. Thereafter the address responds as it would for a person who never held an account, so that no inference can be drawn from the outside about whether you left, were declined, or never applied.

Nothing in this section applies to your signed Mentor Agreement, to any letter you have chosen to add, or to anything else in your file, none of which is public. See the Privacy Policy.

You agree to use GraceBook for its intended purpose: seeking or providing Catholic spiritual mentorship. Acceptable uses include:

• Seeking spiritual direction, discernment coaching, prayer support, faith formation, confession preparation, or spiritual conversation
• Offering the above as a listed mentor
• Accessing prayer resources, formation materials, and community features
• Communicating respectfully with mentors, seekers, and other users

You may not use GraceBook to:

• Harass, threaten, intimidate, or abuse any user
• Impersonate another person, mentor, or ecclesial authority
• Provide false credentials, fabricated endorsements, or misrepresent your qualifications
• Solicit or offer sacramental ministry (including confession) through the Platform
• Share, distribute, or promote content that violates Catholic teaching or the Magisterium
• Use the Platform for commercial solicitation, advertising, or marketing unrelated to GraceBook's mission
• Attempt to circumvent security measures, encryption, or access controls
• Record, screenshot, or distribute session content without the explicit consent of all participants
• Use the Platform while impaired in a way that endangers yourself or others
• Violate any applicable law or regulation

Violation of these prohibitions may result in immediate suspension or permanent removal from the Platform, and may be reported to relevant authorities.

GraceBook staff look after the Platform working properly, and nothing else. We do not hear disputes between seekers and mentors, investigate what was said in a session, or decide who is telling the truth. If you have been harmed, contact the police where it happened; if a child may be at risk, contact your local child protection authority; for concerns about a mentor's ministry, contact their bishop or religious superior. Obligations under Mandatory Reporting run directly to those authorities, and telling us does not discharge them.

Within 30 days after a session ends, either participant may report misuse of the Platform, or a technical problem with it, by selecting a category from the session in their history. Reports consist of the selected category only, and may be changed or withdrawn at any time. Any action taken in response is at GraceBook's sole discretion under section 18.

All mentors on GraceBook agree to the following standards of conduct as a condition of their participation on the Platform:

• Maintain appropriate boundaries — Mentors must not engage in dual relationships with seekers (e.g., financial, romantic, or professional relationships outside the mentoring context).
• Respect the seeker's autonomy — Spiritual accompaniment guides; it does not coerce. Mentors must respect the seeker's freedom of conscience and pace of growth.
• Stay within your competence — Mentors must refer seekers to qualified professionals (licensed counselors, therapists, medical providers) when a seeker's needs exceed the scope of spiritual accompaniment.
• Communicate appropriately — All communication with seekers must occur through the Platform. Mentors must not solicit personal contact information or arrange meetings outside GraceBook without the seeker's initiative.
• Protect confidentiality — Mentors must not disclose any information about their seekers — including their identity, the existence of the relationship, or any content discussed — to anyone outside the session, except as required by law.
• Act with fidelity to the Magisterium — Guidance provided through GraceBook must be consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
• Acknowledge power dynamics — The mentor-seeker relationship involves an inherent imbalance of authority. Mentors must exercise their role with humility, care, and awareness of this dynamic.

Violation of this code of conduct may result in immediate suspension or permanent removal from the Platform, and may be reported to the mentor's bishop, religious superior, or pastor.

By using GraceBook as a mentor, you acknowledge and agree that you are bound by all applicable mandatory reporting laws in your jurisdiction. Specifically:

• If you become aware of or reasonably suspect child abuse or neglect, you are required to report it to the appropriate civil authorities in accordance with applicable law.
• If a seeker expresses imminent danger of harm to themselves or others, you must direct them to their local emergency services and, where required by law, report accordingly.
• If you become aware of abuse of a vulnerable adult, you must report it in accordance with applicable law.

GraceBook does not monitor session content and retains none of it: video and audio are never recorded, and text messages pass directly between the two participants without reaching GraceBook. The responsibility to recognize and act on reportable disclosures therefore rests entirely with the mentor, who is the only person present. GraceBook will cooperate with law enforcement and ecclesial authorities to the extent applicable law requires — while being clear that, in practice, there will be no session content for us to produce.

Failure to comply with mandatory reporting obligations is a violation of these Terms and may result in immediate removal from the Platform, in addition to any legal consequences under applicable law.

GraceBook provides spiritual accompaniment only. The following sacramental boundaries are absolute and non-negotiable:

• No sacramental confession — The Sacrament of Reconciliation requires physical presence (Canon 960). GraceBook offers confession preparation tools only. Any attempt to solicit or offer sacramental absolution through the Platform is a violation of these Terms.
• No sacramental ministry — The Eucharist, Anointing of the Sick, and all other sacraments require physical presence and proper liturgical form. GraceBook does not facilitate sacramental ministry of any kind.
• No substitute for parish life — GraceBook is designed to complement, never replace, active participation in a local parish community and the sacramental life of the Church.

Clear disclaimers are displayed before and during every session. Both seekers and mentors acknowledge these boundaries upon account creation.

• Sessions are held by video, audio or text through GraceBook's encrypted session platform.
• Video, audio and text sessions are end-to-end encrypted, and GraceBook retains no session content: calls are never recorded, and text messages go directly between the two participants without reaching GraceBook. See our Privacy Policy.
• There is no mechanism for GraceBook staff to listen to or view sessions.
• GraceBook does not host mentor session notes. Mentors keep their own records outside the Platform.
• A text conversation is kept only in each participant's browser tab while it is open. GraceBook holds no copy and offers no download.
• Booking does not ask what you want to discuss, and nothing about the subject of a session is stored or emailed in advance.
• You may cancel or reschedule sessions in accordance with the scheduling policies displayed at the time of booking.
• Both parties are expected to treat sessions with the dignity appropriate to spiritual conversation.

• Seekers are never required to pay to access spiritual mentorship. All payments on the Platform are voluntary.
• On GraceBook, a donation is a payment to Liber Gratiae Inc., the nonprofit that operates the Platform, and a gift is a payment to an individual mentor. Either is entirely optional.
• A gift to a mentor is charged directly to that mentor's own Stripe account. The payment is made to the mentor and not to the Corporation; it is not a charitable contribution to the Corporation and is not tax-deductible as one. The Corporation may apply a percentage to gifts to sustain platform operations; that percentage is currently zero.
• The Corporation is recognized as exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, effective 12 February 2026, and is a public charity under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi). A donation to the Corporation is tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. This does not apply to a gift to a mentor, which is described in the bullet above.
• All payment processing is handled by Stripe in accordance with their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
• GraceBook does not store your credit card information. All payment data is handled exclusively by Stripe.
• Donations to the Corporation are nonrefundable.
• Gifts are paid to the mentor, not to the Corporation, and the Corporation does not refund them. Any refund of a gift is a matter for the mentor who received it.

• The GraceBook name, logo, design, and all platform content (excluding user-generated content) are the property of GraceBook and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws.
• You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from GraceBook's proprietary content without written permission.
• Content you create (such as profile information) remains yours, but you grant GraceBook a limited license to display it on the Platform as necessary to provide the service.
• Any notes a mentor keeps belong to that mentor and are held outside GraceBook. We have no copy, and therefore no right or ability to access, use, or distribute them.
• Prayer resources, formation materials, and other educational content provided on the Platform may be used for personal spiritual growth but may not be redistributed commercially.

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, GraceBook disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to:

• Warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
• Any guarantee that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure at all times
• Any guarantee regarding the quality, accuracy, or effectiveness of spiritual guidance received through the Platform

GraceBook is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or psychiatric care. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis line where you live, or go to your nearest emergency room.

Spiritual mentorship provided through GraceBook is not therapy, counseling, or medical advice. Mentors are spiritual guides, not licensed healthcare providers (unless separately credentialed in their professional capacity, which is outside the scope of GraceBook).

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, GraceBook and its officers, directors, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from:

• Your use of or inability to use the Platform
• Any spiritual guidance, advice, or content received through the Platform
• Unauthorized access to or alteration of your data
• Any conduct or content of any third party on the Platform
• Any other matter related to the Platform

In no event shall GraceBook's total liability exceed $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In such cases, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless GraceBook and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• Your use of the Platform
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any rights of another person or entity
• Any content you submit, post, or transmit through the Platform

By You

• You may delete your account at any time from your Account page. It takes effect immediately and does not require our approval; your details are removed at once, and any sessions still ahead are canceled with the other person told. See our Privacy Policy for what is removed and the little that is kept.
• Deleting your account does not stop you coming back. You may sign up again at any time, including with the same email address. Because a deleted account's details are erased, you will start with a new account rather than the old one restored.

By GraceBook

We may suspend or terminate any account at our discretion, at any time, for any reason or none, and without prior notice. This is not a finding about you or anybody else, and we do not hold a hearing or offer an appeal. Among the reasons we may do so:

• You disrupt the use of the Platform — for example, by repeatedly booking sessions you do not attend, or by making false or repeated complaints about other users
• As a mentor, you break the Mentor Agreement — for example, by teaching or promoting views contrary to the Catholic faith
• You solicit payment or promote a business, or are not who you claim to be
• You otherwise violate these Terms
• Your mentor credentials or authorization are revoked by your ecclesiastical authority
• We are required to do so by law
• Your account has been inactive for more than 24 months

If we suspend your account

• Your access — or, for a mentor, your listing, your sessions and your ability to receive gifts — ends at once.
• We email you one line: that your access has been suspended under this section. We do not give further reasons.
• Any sessions still ahead are canceled. The other person is told the session was canceled and is not told why.
• A suspension may be lifted at our discretion, which restores your access. It does not restore canceled sessions.

If we ban you

• Your access ends at once and any sessions still ahead are canceled, as above. We email you one line: that your access has ended under this section. We do not give further reasons.
• You are removed from our mailing list.
• Your email address will not be able to register a new account. We keep a record of the ban — a one-way hash of the address, our own note of why, and the date — which survives even if the account itself is later deleted. See our Privacy Policy.
• If we lift a ban, your account and your address work again. It does not put you back on the mailing list, which only you can do.

Only a ban blocks your email address. A suspension does not, and neither does deleting your own account.

• Informal resolution — We encourage you to contact us at contact@thegracebook.com to resolve any dispute informally before pursuing formal proceedings.
• Governing law — These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law provisions.
• Arbitration — Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally shall be resolved by binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. Arbitration shall take place in New Jersey, or by video conference if both parties agree.
• Class action waiver — You agree to resolve disputes with GraceBook on an individual basis. You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.
• Exceptions — Either party may seek injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction for violations of intellectual property rights or confidentiality obligations.

We may update these Terms at any time. Changes take effect when they are posted on this page, and the current version took effect on the Effective Date at the top. When a change is material, we will also tell you by email or with a notice on the site. Changes apply going forward, not to anything that happened before them.

If you continue to use GraceBook after a change, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to them, you can delete your account at any time.

When you create an account we record which version of these Terms, and of the Privacy Policy, you agreed to.

If you have questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us: