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QUIK-CLICK GUIDE TO THIS
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What To Do If You Are
a Victim
What the Archdiocese Is Doing
What the U.S. Bishops Are Doing
What the Vatican Is Doing
Resources for Victims
Prayers for Healing
Reflections
on the Sex Abuse Crisis
What to Do If Your Priest Is Accused
_____________________________________________________________________
What to Do If You Are
a Victim
of
Sexual Abuse by Church Personnel
Many individuals and the Catholic community
at large continue
to suffer the devastating consequences of the sexual abuse of
minors by priests and other church personnel.
We continue to
grieve and to pray for the victims of this abuse and for their
families, and for all who have been injured or hurt by the
scandal. As Pope John Paul II said, the sexual abuse of
children and young people "is rightly considered a crime by
society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God."
The pastors and pastoral staff members of the Waterloo parishes
are available to visit with anyone, including victims and family
members, who wish to discuss any aspect of the abuse scandal in
a private and confidential way.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual abuse
by a priest, deacon, or individual representing the Catholic
Church there are several things you can do:
•
Contact the Archdiocese of Dubuque's Office of Child
Protection
at 800-876-3546.
• Contact a professional Victim Assistance Coordinator who
is under contract
to provide services to the Archdiocese but is not an
employee of the Church.
• Contact the Iowa Child Abuse Reporting Hotline
at 800-362-2178.
•
Contact local child protection agencies, a private
attorney, or a support group.
• Contact the appropriate
law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction where the
abuse occurred.
In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, professional Victim
Assistance Coordinators receive reports of
abuse, help victims contact civil authorities, and provide
referrals for spiritual care, mental health services, social
services, and support groups.
Archdiocese of Dubuque Victims Assistance Coordinators
Dr. Thomas Anderegg (phone 563-556-1225)
Joan Hoffmann (phone 866-319-4636)_____________________________________________________________________
What the Archdiocese is Doing
Sexual Misconduct Policy (1993)
Policy for the Protection of Minors (2006)
Annual Compliance Reports and Audits
Archbishop's Public Apology/April 10, 2008
Table of Accused Priests
Lawsuits settled
What The U.S. Bishops Are Doing
Text
of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People
Annual
Report on the Implementation of the Charter
List
of Victim Assistance Coordinators in U.S. Dioceses
Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States
(2004)
The Nature
and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors
by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States
(2004)
Supplementary Report (2007)
Report of
the National Review Board (2007)
Questions and Answers About How Allegations of Sexual Abuse
Are Resolved
Response of U.S. Catholics to the Abuse Crisis/CARA Survey
2002
What the Vatican Is Doing
Vatican Resource Page and Links
Resources for Victims
U.S. Bishops'
Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection
Archdiocese of Dubuque/Office for the Protection of Children
Hope and
Healing Ministries
Committed to Freedom Ministries
Mary's Hope
Workshops
Survivors Network of
Those Abused by Priests
______________________________________
Prayers for Healing
A Prayer of Healing
God of endless love, ever caring, ever strong:
your only Son was delivered into the hands of the wicked
yet healed us by the blood of his cross.
May the gentle Jesus, join to his own suffering,
the pains of those abused by priests who have betrayed your
love,
and servants of your Church, whose sin has brought us shame.
May Christ hear the cries of those abused,
may he quell their restless fears with faith in your
protection,
their doubt, with confidence in your love,
and all rage with trust in your healing mercy
Grant all Shepherds of his Church the compassion to protect his
lambs,
the strength to guide his flock, and the wisdom to model their
lives
on Christ, the Good Shepherd.
God of justice and compassion, protect all children from abuse,
and deliver us from hate.
May we seek only justice and truth, and trust in your unending
mercy.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
• • •
Prayer for Healing for Victims of Abuse
Praise to you, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
source of all consolation and hope.
By your Son's dying and rising He remains our light in every
darkness,
our strength in every weakness.
Be the refuge and guardian of all who suffer from abuse and
violence.
Comfort them and send healing for their wounds of body, soul and
spirit.
Rescue them from bitterness and shame
and refresh them with your
love.
Heal the brokenness in all victims of abuse
and revive the
spirits of all who lament this sin.
Help us to follow Jesus in drawing good from evil, life from
death.
Make us one with you in your love for justice
as we deepen our respect for the dignity of every human life.
Giver of peace, make us one in celebrating your praise,
both now and for ever.
Amen.
+ John F. Kinney, Bishop of Saint Cloud, MN
© 2002 Diocese of St. Cloud. All rights reserved.
• • •
General Intercession for Good Friday
Let us pray for the victims of sexual abuse,
in particular for children who were abused by clergy;
that God may grant to those whose innocence was violated
the grace of healing and new life.
(Silent prayer)
Almighty and eternal God,
be the refuge and guardian
of all who suffer from abuse and violence.
Heal their wounds of body, soul and spirit;
rescue them from shame and guilt;
and refresh them with your love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
• • •
A
Public Confession
The following is the text of a confession read on March 31, 2010
in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna by Cardinal Christoph
Schönborn and Catholic theologian Veronica Prüller-Jagenteuful.
The confession was proclaimed in the context of a liturgy of
lamentation and penance held in response to many cases of
physical and sexual abuse which were revealed in Austria and
elsewhere in recent weeks.
Triune God, you led our mothers and fathers out of slavery into
freedom and taught them the 10 commandments of a good life. You
became flesh in Jesus Christ and showed us that love is the
fundamental rule in all things. You are with us as Holy Spirit
to lead us.
And yet we become sinful before you and before one another.
Enormous sin has been revealed in these weeks. It is the sin of
the individual. It is the sin permeating structures, models of
acting, and models of thinking. It is the sin of not offering
help and not daring to speak up.
The responsibility for this concerns us as members of the church
in widely varying degrees. And yet, we are your people together
and we stand in common responsibility. And so we confess to you
and to one another our sin:
We confess that we have not followed God alone, but rather have
followed the gods of our need for lording over and superiority.
Some of us have, precisely in that sense, abused others, even
children.
We confess that we have obscured and betrayed the name of God
which means love.
Some of us have preached the love of God and yet have done evil
to our charges.
We confess that we have not kept holy and not sufficiently
valued the sacraments and other times and places of special
encounter with God.
Some of us have used these as opportunity for assault.
We confess that we have not maintained between adults and
children relationships of unconditional respect for the other.
Some of us have used and destroyed the trust of children.
We confess that we have not takes seriously the destruction of
life and happiness in life, that we have not understood the
destruction and we have trivialized it.
Some of us have become guilty of the inner murder of other
people.
We confess that we have not cherished bodiliness and have failed
in the task of rightly living out our sexuality.
Some of us have done sexual violence.
We confess that we have wanted to possess youth, beauty, and
vitality for ourselves.
Some of us have stolen childhood from boys and girls and robbed
them of the capability of living out successful relationships.
We confess that we did not wish to acknowledge the reality, that
we covered up and bore false witness.
Some of us have been able thereby to further delude ourselves
and others and continue the criminality.
We confess that we have wished to have control over others and
possess them.
Some of us have thereby usurped the bodies of the weakest ones.
We confess that we craved security, calm, power, and reputation.
For some of us the Church’s appearance of sinlessness was more
important than anything else.
We, the People of God, his Church, bear this sin with one
another.
We confess this sin to those many people whom we as Church and
some of us as particular individuals have sinned against.
We confess this sin to one another, for the Church has become
sinful in its members.
We confess our sin to God.
We are ready to take on our responsibility for the past and the
present, individually and communally. We are ready to renew our
models of thinking and acting according to the Spirit of Jesus
and to collaborate in the healing of wounds. We place ourselves
as Church before the judgment of Christ.
O
Christ, you said that you have taken our sin upon you. And yet
we implore you today: Leave some of it for us. Help us not to
brush it away too quickly, and make us ready to take it on: each
one for individual sin and all of us together for common sin.
And then give us hope in judgment: hope for new freedom coming
from truth, and for that forgiveness for which we have no claim.
Amen
• • •
More Prayers
for Healing
Click here
______________________________________
Reflections on the Sexual
Abuse Crisis
This section provides a selection of
observations and reflections designed to help Catholics address
the wide range of emotions and reactions which the abuse scandal
evokes.
Click here
______________________________________
What to do
if your priest is
accused of abuse
These
suggestions were prepared by the Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests (SNAP).
1) Remain
open-minded.
The natural human instinct is to recoil from alleged horror, and
to immediately assume that the allegations are false. But the
overwhelming majority of abuse disclosures prove to be true.
In every case, the proper and Christian response is to remain
open-minded.
2) Pray for all
parties involved.
Every person involved deserves and needs prayerful support.
3) Let yourself feel
whatever emotions arise.
You may feel angry, betrayed, confused, hurt, worried and sad.
These are all natural, "typical" responses to an allegation of
sexual abuse. None of these feelings are inappropriate or "bad."
Don't "kick yourself" for feeling any of these emotions.
4) Remember that
abuse, sadly, is quite common.
It's far more widespread than any of us would like to believe.
Experts estimate that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 9 boys will be
molested in their lifetimes.
5) Don't try to
"guess" or figure out who the accuser is.
Abuse victims, like rape victims, need their privacy to recover
from their trauma. Openly speculating about who is alleging
abuse is essentially gossiping, and helps to create a hostile
climate that will keep other victims (even those abused by
non-clerical perpetrators) from coming forward.
6) If you do know the
victim(s), protect his/her confidentiality.
There are many good reasons why abuse victims are unable to
publicly come forward. Often, the person wants to keep his/her
elderly parents or young children from suffering too. Don't
compound the pain he/she is in by disclosing his/her identity to
others.
7) Understand that
abuse victims often have "troubled" backgrounds (i.e. drug or
alcohol problems, criminal backgrounds, etc.)
Instead of undermining the credibility of accusers, these
difficulties actually enhance their credibility. (When someone
is physically hurt, there are almost always clear signs of harm;
so too with sexual abuse. The harm is reflected largely in
self-destructive behaviors. One might be skeptical of a person
who claimed to have been run over by a truck but showed no
bodily injury. Similarly, one might be skeptical of an alleged
molestation victim who always acted like a "model citizen.")
8) Don't allow the
mere passage of time to discredit the accusers.
Stress to your fellow parishioners that there are many good
reasons why abuse victims disclose their victimization years
after the crime. In most instances, victims come forward when
they are emotionally able to do so, and feel capable of risking
disbelief and rejection from precious loved ones, including
family members, church leaders, other authorities, and fellow
Catholics. Sometimes,
they are psychologically able to do so only after their
perpetrator has died, moved or been accused by someone else.
Sometimes, they have been assured that their perpetrator would
never be around kids again, but have learned that this isn't the
case. (In other cases, it takes years before victims are
able to understand and/or acknowledge to themselves that they
have been sexually violated. This is a common defense
mechanism.)
9) Ask your family
members and friends if they were victimized.
Many times, abuse victims will continue to "keep the secret"
unless specifically invited to disclose their victimization by
someone they love and trust. Even raising this topic can be very
uncomfortable. But it must be done. It may be very awkward and
your family members may even act resentful at first. But soon
they will remember that you really care about them, and will see
your question as a sign of that care.
10) Mention the
accusation to former parishioners and parish staff now living
elsewhere.
They may
have information that could prove the guilt or innocence of the
priest facing allegations. This is especially important because
sometimes abuse victims or their families move away after
experiencing abuse.
11) Contact the
police or prosecutors.
It's your duty as a citizen to call the proper civil authorities
if you have any information (even if it's "second hand" or
vague) that might help prove the guilt or innocence of the
accused. It's your duty as a Christian to help seek justice and
protect others from harm. Remember: abuse thrives in secrecy.
Exposing a physical wound to fresh air, clean water and sunlight
can be healing. Exposing sexual crimes is also ultimately
healing. And remember that police and prosecutors are unbiased
professionals with the skills and experience needed to ascertain
whether an allegation is true or false.
12) Don't allow other
parishioners to make disparaging comments about those making the
allegation.
Remember, the sexual abuse of children has terribly damaging
effects. As a Christian, you want to help prevent such
victimization. And you want anyone who is in pain to get help as
soon as possible. Critical comments about those who make
allegations only discourage others who may have been hurt. Such
remarks prevent those who need help from reaching out and
getting it. Show your compassion for abuse victims. Tell your
fellow parishioners that hurtful comments are inappropriate.
Remind them that they can defend their priest without attacking
his accuser.
13) Educate yourself
and your family about sexual abuse.
There are many excellent books and resources on the subject.
There are also good books specifically about molestation by
clerics (Jason Berry's Lead Us Not Into Temptation, Frank
Bruni & Elinor Burkett's Gospel of Shame, and the Boston
Globe's Betrayal). Check out the web site for clergy
abuse victims: SNAPnetwork.org
14) Support the
accused priest PRIVATELY.
Calls, visits, letters, gifts, and prayers - all of these are
appropriate ways to express your love and concern for the
accused priest. Public displays of support, however, are not.
They only intimidate others into keeping silent. In fact, it is
terribly hurtful to victims to see parishioners openly rallying
behind an accused priest. You may want to publicly defend a
priest, collect funds for the priest's defense, and take similar
steps. Please don't. Express your appreciation of the priest in
a direct, quiet ways. Even if the priest is innocent, somewhere
in the parish is a young girl being molested by a relative or a
boy being abused by his coach or youth leader. If these children
see adults they love and respect publicly rallying around
accused perpetrators, they will be less likely to report their
own victimization to their parents, the police, or other
authorities. They will be scared into remaining silent, and
their horrific pain will continue.
15) Don't be blinded
by the pain you can see.
The trauma of the accused priest, and those who care about him,
is obvious. You can usually see it in his face, his posture, and
his actions. But please try to keep in mind the trauma of the
accuser too. Because you rarely see his/her pain directly, it's
important to try and imagine it. This helps you keep a balanced
perspective.
16) Try to put
yourself in the shoes of the alleged victim.
It's easy to identify with the priest. Most Catholics have met
dozens of priests and know them as warm and wonderful
individuals. On the other hand, few Catholics have met clergy
abuse survivors. In the gospels, Jesus calls us to identify with
the hurting, the vulnerable, and the innocent, the hurting. Try,
as best you can, to imagine the shame, self-blame, confusion and
fear that afflict men and women who have been victimized by
trusted religious authority figures.
17) Use this painful
time as an opportunity to protect your own family.
Talk with your children about "safe touch," the private parts of
their bodies, who is allowed to touch those parts, what to do if
someone else tries, and who to tell. Urge your sons and
daughters to have similar conversations with your grandchildren.
18) Turn your pain
into helpful action.
In times of stress and trauma, doing something constructive can
be very beneficial. Volunteer your time or donate your funds to
organizations that help abused kids or work to stop molestation.
19) Keep in mind the
fundamental choice you face.
On the one hand, at stake are the feelings of a grown up. On the
other hand, at stake is the physical, emotional, psychological,
spiritual and sexual safety of potentially many children. If one
has to err in either direction, the prudent and moral choice is
to always err on the side of protecting those who can't protect
themselves: children. Remember too that it's easier for an adult
to repair his reputation than for a child (or many children) to
repair his/her psyche and life. Another way to look at this:
Being falsely accused of abuse is horrific. But actually being
abused, then being attacked or disbelieved is far worse.
20) Ask your pastor
to bring in an outside expert or a therapist who can lead a
balanced discussion about sexual abuse.
Therapists understand and can answer the questions you and your
fellow parishioners are facing, and help you deal with the
emotional impact of this trauma too.
21)
Urge your bishop, pastor and other diocesan or parish employees
to follow these guidelines too.
Created 05.07 • Last Update 05.16.10 |