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	An Interview with National Survivor Advocacy Coalition Founding Member Stephen Sheehan Healing and Spirituality August 5, 2010 http://www.jaimeromo.com/blog/ Stephen Sheehan is a founding member of the National Survivors’ Advocacy Coalition and editor of NCSAC newsletter. He spoke to me from the recent Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests conference. JR: What is the National Survivors’ Advocacy Coalition? SS: Our mission is to support survivors, primarily of clergy abuse in the Catholic Church, but anywhere we find survivors of any type of sexual abuse. JR: How long has the organization been in existence? The organization is a year and half old. Most of us were early members of Voice of the Faithful in 2002. I gravitated very quickly into the VOTF Survivor Supporter Working Group, and adopted the support of survivors of clergy abuse as a primary role in my life. I worked for a number of years during that time and in 2004, took over the publication of a daily journal of news stories concerning clergy abuse and related stories under aegis of VOTF and did that until early 2009. At that time, VOTF found that the publication was no longer necessary and that they could handle that through RSS feeds through their website (i.e., there was no need to pay me to do it, as well as having a slight editorial problem). The executive director wanted to act as my senior editor and decide what I could and couldn’t publish, and I lost my editorial privilege. When VOTF stopped the publication, I got e-mails from across the country, from Canada, Australia and Ireland asking to please keep the publication going. So, we set up this network called the National Survivor Advocacy Coalition (NSAC) and we started publishing the same type of publication under the NSAC news. I had much more decision making over what I could publish. I had free reign. Under VOTF, I was restricted to articles that appeared in legitimate media (taken from the Boston Globe , New York Times, etc.), no opinion pieces, no press releases, no letters to the editor, all of which I can do now and do freely. So, we’ve changed the structure of the news a little bit, but we’re publishing every day, Monday through Friday, usually on the order of 8 to 10 articles per day. Recently, since the blow up of the sexual abuse trauma in Ireland, and then Germany and Austria, we’ve been publishing 18-20 articles per day. We keep this going and it keeps people informed about what’s happening around the world in terms of clergy abuse and things that people are doing to make the world safer for children. JR: What else does NSAC do? SS: Another thing that we’re actively involved in is supporting the elimination of the Statute of Limitations for sexual crimes, which we feel are equivalent to murder. The legislature should not be given the opportunity to say, ‘you can’t prosecute this after a certain period of time.’ We do press releases and support and promote programs in all the states to eliminate the statue of limitations. We, not just NSAC but other organizations working in concert have worked to eliminate the statue of limitations in 5 states: Delaware, Mississippi, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Tennessee. JR: Some countries don’t have a Statute of Limitations for sexual abuse: Australia, Switzerland, Canada. SS: The problem is that if the perpetrator leaves a jurisdiction, the statute of limitation stops running. He comes back into that jurisdiction later, it picks up again. So you have the situation with two priests, both abuse children around the same time. One leaves that jurisdiction and comes back 30 years later; the other stays in that jurisdiction. The one that stayed there cannot be prosecuted after 30 years. The one who left can be. And they’re both guilty of the same type of crime under the same type of circumstances. It’s not fair to either one of them. JR: Did some members of NSAC recently take some action in Rome and other European countries? What was the impact? SS: There have been people from SNAP in Rome. NSAC had representation in Ireland through one of our members, Rev. Bob Hoatson. He went to deal with survivors over there and strengthen the bonds between them and us.. Vis a vis, 4 of 5 bishops cited in the Murphy Report resigned. That’s the sort of thing we try to do. We keep the pressure on.JR: I think that more and more, there are people across the world who will not be silent. And many want to work together in whatever way we can. SS: We work with SNAP, we publicize events, and support the active organizations. I am either a member or supporter of SNAP, National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children, Protect Children America, Call To Action, STOPP, Road to Recovery, etc. I’m in contact with them and I publicize their activities. JR: So, given that there are a lot of people who are active and those people may burn out (i.e., there is a lot of resistance to the ending of Statutes of Limitations, there are lots of people looking to protect the documents promised through court cases), what keeps you going? SS: Well, burnout is problem throughout this whole clergy abuse situation. We can only take so much of it. From time to time, I get the feeling that I’ve got to stop doing what I’m doing because it’s just getting overwhelming, the trauma is too much to deal with. And then out of the clear blue, totally unexpectedly, I get an e-mail from someone I don’t even know, they don’t even sign their name other than their screen name, and it says, ‘Steve, thank you for everything you’re doing. Keep up the good work. We need you.’ And I’m back in for another six months, or more. It’s as simple as that. JR: So what have been some of the accomplishments either individually or collectively? SS: We have gotten documents released in some archdiocese; we’ve kept the pressure on some bishops to meet with and talk with survivors; we’ve pointed out the fact that in a lot of cases, the bishops haven’t done that or that they have been ordered to release documents and haven’t done that. So, we keep public awareness on these things. JR: Related to awareness, I think of all the members of churches, temples, mosques. People may be furious or feel betrayed, but they’re still members. What do you think keeps them from being outraged and demanding change, transparency, and documents? SS: I think it’s just a normal fear of getting over-involved in something in which they really don’t have any control; people’s lives are very cluttered these days, especially with the economic conditions. People are willing, in a lot of cases, to contribute money to help fund some of these operations, but they don’t have the time to put in. Or they have children to put through college– that’s an awful load to carry. People have too much baggage right now. Back in 2002, we had a tremendous response across the country and across the globe. Initially, the outrage was quite strong. Then in 2003, Bishop Wilton Gregory announced that ‘this is history. We’ve taken care of the problem. We’ve adopted a charter and policies to prevent abuse. So it’s all over. And people believed it. JR: So, what’s the next effort or focus for NSAC? SS: One of the next foci will be the pope’s visit to England. There’s been a lot of mention of that in the papers and a lot of consternation and controversy as to whether he’s welcome or not welcome. We’ll keep the pressure on the Vatican. Remember when the pope came to the United States. He said, ‘We will do everything possible to prevent the future abuse of children.’ We want to hold him to those exact words. So when they come out and say, in the code of cannon law, we’ve extended the statute of limitations by another 10 years, that’s not doing everything possible. That’s window dressing. We’ve released some documents. That’s not enough. Release all the documents. We’ve removed some from ministry and laicized them. That’s not enough. Let’s get all of them out of the picture. Let’s do something with the bishops. Not one bishop in the United States has been jailed for what he’s done, being complicit in the cover up of the sexual abuse of children. One bishop in particular, Bishop John McCormack of New Hampshire, was on the verge of being indicted by the attorney general for child endangerment. But he cut a deal with the AG by releasing documents that he intended to keep secret in exchange for immunity from prosecution, and now he can’t be touched. And the pope does nothing about this. And the Vatican has got to get busy and get after these bishops and get rid of some of those who are the most egregious violators of the law- these are criminal actions. JJR: I’m always interested in the impact that being involved with this has had directly or indirectly on survivors and supporters. I’ve written a lot about my own transformation and spiritual life. Can you talk about your spiritual life as a result of your involvement, not despite it? SS: Well, I’ve found that we can get a very strong reaction from the survivors for our support of them. They appreciate us being with them, because part of the problem with survivors is that people don’t believe them. Their families don’t believe them, people in their church don’t believe them, the authorities don’t believe them, bishops don’t believe them. They’ve gone so far as to accuse 11 year old girls of seducing a priest, ‘it’s not the priest’s fault. It’s the little girl’s fault.’ This is part of the trauma that survivors go through. When I first got involved in this back in 2002, right after the VOTF national convention at the Hines Auditorium in Boston, we went down to the Cathedral that night with 500 people and half a dozen survivors. We had a little demonstration in from of the Cathedral and listened to their stories- and that’s when I made up my mind that that’s what I had to do. So the following Sunday, I knew that some of these survivors were out in front of the Cathedral every Sunday, I drove down there. And I’m saying to myself, ‘I’m going to support these survivors.’ And I park my car and see the handful of survivors out in front of the Cathedral and I say to myself, ‘Dear God, what am I going to say when I go over there?’ How am I going to be received? What can I possibly do to help them? I have no experience in this. I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a social worker. I haven’t been abused. I’m an outsider walking in. What are they going to say when I walk up?’ But I walked over there and they greeted me with open arms. And I told them when I left them that morning that I really didn’t do anything, and they said that you did a lot. You were here with us. You came out to be with us and we appreciate that. And that’s what they need and that’s what we try to give them—that kind of moral support, restore their trust that some of us believe them and are willing to help them and fight for them. JR: I don’t know if this is accurate, but it sounds like a spirituality of presence, a spirituality of solidarity is equally as important for survivors as it is for you. SS: Absolutely. And people thanked me for coming out there, and I thanked them for being there and for the opportunity to be with them. I come away from the Cathedral and I feel good knowing that I’ve been with them and that they believe me and trust me. JR: Well, thank you. It sounds like your life is different and that there’s no going back. SS: No, I have a whole different mindset now than I had in 2001. I’m thoroughly committed and I stay committed because they appreciate me coming down there and it’s a reciprocal kind of thing. My life is different. I absolutely love children. 10 years ago, I’d see a mother and child and I would go and pick up the child and give a hug and rock her in my arms and smile and play, and I would come away so happy because the experience of being with a child is so happy. But that changed. That’s gone. I meet children now, and I work in a place where there a lot of children. And they come home from school and come to me and tell me what they did in school and I look after them and say, ‘Dear God, don’t let anything happen to them.’ And I cannot feel that type of joy that I had before. I have these great feelings of fear and trepidation that these children will be abused because I know what the statistics are. And in the United States, 1 in every 4 girls and 1 in every 6 boys will be abuse by the age of 18. In Ireland, it’s 1 girl in 3 and 1 boy in 5. In India and in Africa, it’s 1 in 2. JR: Yes, it’s time to end all of that. SS: I was invited to the school of one of my granddaughters; they were putting on a parents’ day. So I walked into the room. 10 years ago, I would have seen 25 smiling faces; I walked in there and I’m figuring , ‘How many of these children are going to be abused?’ I can’t get that out of my mind. JR: I appreciate you being in this journey. SS: It’s not just me. It’s all of us. People in the SNAP conference, people in the leadership conference, go through the same thing. When I talk with survivors, their main focus is not really healing for themselves, because they’re 30, 40, 50, 60 years old. They’ve been through their lives and surviving their abuse. Their main focus is to protect the children, the ones that are coming behind us. That’s what we want to do. We will do anything we can to change laws to protect children. JR: And change behaviors. SS: Yes, absolutely. JR: My focus, my shift away from teaching teachers, is to promote healing and ending abuse everywhere. That’s it. SS: These are important things. Thanks for what you do.
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