BishopAccountability.org
	Healing the Wounds from Clergy Child Abuse By the Oregonian Virginia Pickles Jones April 8, 2010 http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/04/healing_the_wounds_from_clergy.html The child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has lasted for years. Progress toward a resolution stalled long ago. Pain and anger remain on all sides. We Catholics feel wounded by lawsuits and media stories concerning abuse and cover-up. We experience so much good through our church – experiences very different from the charges we see in the media. We pack up boxes at Christmas time for the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry or we receive those boxes. We volunteer at parish Halloween parties, and our children attend Catholic schools. When we're sick, we go to Catholic hospitals and are visited by caring fellow parishioners bringing us communion. We receive blood pressure screenings after the Thursday noon seniors' group. We make dinner for families staying at our parish's homeless shelter. Our priest gives us free counseling and helps us through rough patches in our marriages or comforts us when our parents die. We understand that some priests abused children in our church, but those abuses seem far away and long ago. We don't know any survivors or we think we don't know any. We believe victims should be cared for, but we find it hard to believe that not enough has been done. But if Catholics suffer, the victims of child abuse suffer even more. Some good has been accomplished. Priests are more likely to be removed when accused of abuse. Civil lawsuits have produced some justice for abuses too old to prosecute. Some church documents have been disclosed, but many remain secret. There has been so much abuse and cover-up of abuse; many victims aren't able to trust that changes have been sufficient. More church staff, volunteers and children have been trained to report abuses, yet we still hear of recent cases. How much abuse remains unreported? Moreover, many Catholic dioceses and orders place limits on therapy. Nor does the church give victims complete freedom to choose their own therapist or healing program. Some victims are not able to trust church personnel enough to seek therapy through church-run programs. Where can they go for help? Rarely does the church allow control to slip from its hands to others whom victims feel they're able to trust. And many victims remain in the church but are silent about their abuse, because they hear other Catholics criticize victims. This list of unresolved problems remains incomplete. It's enough to make one walk away in despair, convinced that resolution will never come – and this is precisely what most people have done and why the issue remains unresolved. All of us, victims of abuse and other Catholics, need to look at what we are doing and ask if it is effective. If it is not effective, we need to examine what else we can do. There is no right way to heal wounds we all carry from clergy child abuse. There are many valid points of view. Reconciliation and forgiveness are not ends but journeys with way-stops along the road. The most important question is what can we all, victims and other Catholics, do to embark on these journeys together? Virginia Pickles Jones is cofounder of Compassionate Gathering, an organization that brings victims of clergy child abuse and other Catholics together for mutual healing and understanding.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.