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	Advancing Peace By Jaime Romo Healing and Spirituality August 3, 2010 http://www.jaimeromo.com/blog/ I spent this last weekend in Chicago with hundreds of people from across the country and other countries who gathered to share stories of courage, healing and hope with respect to ending Religious Authority Sexual Abuse (RASA). There were some well known pioneers and advocates in this movement, such as Barbara Blaine, David Clohessy, Tom Doyle, Pat Wall and Jeff Anderson. There were representatives from other groups: National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children, Voice Of The Faithful, National Survivor Advocacy Coalition, Call To Action, and others. There were also people who spoke and made public for the first time in a supportive environment the trauma and tragedy of their own or their loved one’s RASA. It was a rich gathering of survivors, supporters, and transformers. One thing that I might offer to this kind of gathering in the future is a change in the name. I know that some people are rolling their eyes, tired of hearing this critique, but let me explain. The Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) doesn’t have to change the letters of the organization to continue the work. In fact, a name change might be problematic. For example, to have a slightly broader association with other churches, the group might be called Survivors Network of those Abused by Clergy. But that make it, SNAC, and that might just make some people hungry. Or it could be stronger: Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Religious Authorities. That would become SNARL, but that might make the group too intimidating, even to those survivors and supporters who want to join and help. On the other hand, Survivors Network Overcoming Religious Enthusiasm would be SNORE, and who would join that? The group might consider, Survivors’ Network Against Pious Perps of Youth: SNAPPY, but that’s just silly. But if the group consolidated with Citizens Really Angry Contemplating Klobbering Leaders of Every Perp or Pedophile, it would be SNAP, CRACKLE, POP. Wait, I think that’s been taken. But there is a lot of serious work to do. At the conference, one of the speakers, Dr. Christine Courtois, made the clear connection between RASA and incest, in terms of victims facing entire systems of abuse, as well as new understandings of the unfolding of PTSD in self destructive relationships and behaviors. The social costs of all violence and abuse is documented in the Felitti study of Adverse Childhood Experiences. And this growing global movement to end not only religious authority sexual abuse, but all child abuse and abuse of vulnerable adults is now a social and moral imperative. And it is a movement. This is a movement, like the Civil Rights movement, now expanded in a global age, where all of our national ills have an international impact. So, I suggest that this bigger vision might be called the Survivors’ Network Advancing Peace, because as Pope Paul VI correctly stated, ‘If you want peace, work for justice.’ And where there are sexual abuse children and vulnerable adults, there is no justice. Where there are religious authorities who look the other way or move perpetrators around from one temple, mosque, imam, church to another, there is no justice. Where there is the ongoing fight, in many cases funded primarily by religious institutions or their insurance boards against efforts to repeal Statutes of Limitations, there is no justice. Where there are people who deny abuse in families and blame the victims for their own trauma, loss of youth, or mental, physical or spiritual devastation, there is no justice. I came away from the conference with the deeper understanding that those who work together, survivors and supporters, share in spirituality, conscious or not. I believe that this spirituality is one of presence and solidarity. It seems to me that once people face the truth of RASA in their lives or in others lives, they are changed forever. Supporters gain and are changed by the experience of being with and fighting for those who have been abused, in order to prevent future abuse. Those who bring their abuse experience forward, however angrily or messily, gain more of their voice and connection to themselves— to that precious presence, the spark of God in all of us. Indeed, the Survivors’ and Supporters’ Network to Advance Peace advances progress, advances a transformation, a redemption of generations of trauma and unresolved mourning and damage, particularly under the blinding mantle of religious authority. It is time to work together, bound by values, not beliefs. It is time to end all abuse and violence towards ourselves or others. It is time for those who have been silent and inactive to take up their voice, their role, and their responsibility in promoting healing and ending abuse—in part by being present and in part by being active, outraged if necessary, but unrelenting in releasing documents, making changes in laws, bringing accountability to criminals and bringing healing to those who are broken through sexual abuse. It is time to advance peace: survivors and supporters advancing peace together.
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