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	Helping Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse: Suggestions for Pope Benedict XVI By Robert M. Hoatson Road to Recovery May 22, 2010 http://www.road-to-recovery.org/helping-victims-clergy-sexual-abuse-suggestions-pope-benedict-xvi Pope Benedict XVI has given indications that he is finally “getting it” regarding clergy sexual abuse. During his recent trip to Portugal, he boldly and correctly concluded that the clergy sexual abuse scandal of the Roman Catholic Church is rooted not in covert or overt attacks from the media, survivors of abuse, lawyers, or any other group, but in the “sins’ of those in the Church. The abuse and its cover-up are rooted in the internal dynamics, policies, and personalities of the Church itself, and it behooves the Church at this time to begin implementing practices and procedures that focus on restorative justice for the victims. In 2003, a priest colleague, Father Ken Lasch of the Paterson, New Jersey, diocese, and I were so moved and disturbed by the stories and plights of clergy abuse survivors that we founded an organization that would deliver direct services to them. Besides the obvious symptoms of guilt, shame, depression, anxiety and a host of other life-long effects that result from the sexual abuse endured by these men and women when they were children, we noticed that many (most) victims we deal with have difficulty holding jobs, entering into and maintaining relationships, renting apartments and houses, keeping their families in food and clothing, and essentially surviving from day to day. Road to Recovery, Inc., the non-profit organization that Father Lasch and I founded, is the only organization in the United States (perhaps in the world) that provides victims of clergy sexual abuse with financial and other direct aid to help them recover from the ordeal of sexual abuse. Currently, we help dozens of victims with their medical, psychological, spiritual, and financial needs even though we are a simple operation with a skeleton staff and limited resources. Thanks to many faithful and generous Catholics and non-Catholics, we continue to help victims with their everyday needs such as food, clothing, doctor visits, rent, travel, and medicine. In a few cases, we have freed clergy abuse survivors from prison and started them on their roads to recovery.” Since 2003, Road to Recovery has worked with well over one thousand victims and their families. After all, sexual abuse of a child becomes a family tragedy and scandal, not just one that is inflicted on the child. Whole families are affected, and whole families need healing. Pope Benedict XVI is to be congratulated for correctly concluding on the plane trip from Rome to Lisbon that the clergy abuse scandal is one that has emanated from and has its basis in the inner workings of the Church. It is an internal tragedy and must be fixed by the “inside” from the “inside. Based on Road to Recovery’s on-the-ground experience helping the abused cope with the effects of their abuse, we offer to Pope Benedict and his colleagues in the hierarchy the following suggested action steps that will help restore clergy abuse victims to fullness of life (these steps do not preclude the necessary and/or statutory reporting of all crimes to local and/or national law enforcement): 1. We respectfully suggest that Pope Benedict hold a press event at which he promises all victims of clergy sexual abuse that the Church will supply whatever they need to heal through the dioceses and/or religious orders where or within which the abuse took place. 2. When the victims are identified and found credible by independent panels of lay Catholics and non-Catholics, thorough analyses of the victims’ state should take place, including assessments of their social, psychological, financial, spiritual, and medical conditions. The victims’ immediate families (wives/husbands and children, ordinarily), will be evaluated for similar conditions. 3. The Church will then provide survivors and their families the services that will begin the “restorative justice” process. 4. Pope Benedict will then direct the establishment of “Centers of Restorative Healing” in every diocese and/or region of every country of the world where reports of clergy sexual abuse have been reported. 5. The “Centers of Restorative Healing” will be comprehensive facilities providing whatever survivors need to heal. For example, the facilities must provide medical and psychological services, housing, food, and recreation/social components. Presently, the Catholic Church in the United States provides facilities for priests who are in crisis; justice demands that the same be done for survivors and their families. 6. From the “Centers of Restorative Healing,” victims must have the opportunity to complete the educations that oftentimes were interrupted and never completed. We propose that attendance at local elementary, secondary, university, vocational, and occupational schools be provided by the Church to victims and their families. 7. The “Centers for Restorative Healing” will provide job and career counseling as well as job placement guidance. Once a victim and his/her family have been “restored” to health and can function on their own, the victim and his/her family will be counseled about housing opportunities that are independent of the “Centers of Restorative Healing.” Should the survivor and his family not function well on the “outside,” they would be welcome to resume residence at a “Center of Restorative Healing.” 8. All facilities/services will be paid for and provided by the Roman Catholic Dioceses and/or religious orders that are responsible for the abuse that took place. The Vatican will stand ready to supplement whatever dioceses or religious orders cannot provide. 9. All victims will be eligible to return to the dioceses/religious orders should their life states dictate the need for further services. Since childhood sexual abuse has been defined by numerous mental health care professionals as murder of the soul, it may take a lifetime for some victims to heal well enough to live independently of the Church’s services. However, those who need ongoing and life-long services will be provided them free of charge on an indefinite basis. 10. Road to Recovery and its affiliates would be honored and happy to be the “lead” agency in establishing these restorative justice services. Our vast experience helping survivors would assist Pope Benedict in getting these plans off the ground and realized. Now that Pope Benedict has acknowledged the “terror” of clergy sexual abuse and the damage it does to individuals and families, it is time for the Roman Catholic Church to place “victims” and their healing as number one on its list of priorities. The Holy Father’s words must be matched by bold and decisive action, such as the plan outlined above. It has been the hope of Road to Recovery, Inc. that one day we would work arm in arm with the institutional Church to bring healing and recovery to clergy sexual abuse survivors. We stand ready, willing, and able to be for victims and their families a beacon of hope. No longer will a survivor have to worry about where the next meal will come from, how he/she will pay the rent or mortgage, how to fend off the next panic or anxiety attack without proper medicine, and/or caring for his/her spouse and children. It is time for decisive and just action. It is our belief at Road to Recovery that “pew Catholics” are generous, compassionate, and justice-oriented. Collections presently are taken up for “Peter’s Pence,” retired religious, and communications efforts, to name a few. The Vatican would do well to introduce a new collection, calling it, perhaps, The Collection for Restorative Justice for Victims of Clergy and Religious Sexual Abuse. Yes, ordinary lay Catholics will be funding this effort, and their money will be well spent. To help victims of clergy sexual abuse recover from “soul murder” is a charitable act that has no rival presently. It is time for the Roman Catholic Church to clean up the internal mess it has created. Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. is the co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity serving clergy abuse survivors and based in West Orange, New Jersey (www.road-to-recovery.org).
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