BishopAccountability.org
	Slow and Steady Progress Healing and Spirituality January 25, 2011 http://www.jaimeromo.com/blog/archives/336 A friend noted that I haven’t been blogging for a while. I began with a passion to promote understanding about healing and spirituality from the perspective of a healing and learning man who was once groomed and abused by a religious authority. During the first year, I included interviews with leaders from the healing movement. I wrote her back that my lack of blogging was “Partly not sure what to say, partly not sure how useful it is for others, partly busy getting a career/ vocation to line up.” What I mean by the first two points is that there are daily revelations of cover up and ongoing denial by Vatican religious authorities and followers about Religious Authority Sexual Abuse (RASA). Documents have been released in San Diego and from investigators that show this. Even files purged files have shown this. More documents related to the Franciscans in California will soon be released following a rejection by the CA courts to hear the Franciscan’s appeal to keep the documents from the public. I’ve allowed the silence following these revelations to dampen my passion. I’ve wondered what more needs to happen for the public to express some outrage and take action. Martin Luther King Jr. noted that “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” This seems to be the case in Wisconsin, where “sometime in 2007, according to Fr. Doerfler sworn testimony, while under direct orders from the bishop of Green Bay, he and staff members of the diocese under his supervision began to deliberately and systematically destroy what appears to be nearly all records and documentation concerning sex offender clergy. This material would include criminal evidence of child sex crimes by clerics as well as evidence of fraud by the bishops of Green Bay and the senior management of the diocese. The document destruction was first ordered by Bishop David Zubik. Zubik has since been promoted by the Vatican to run the diocese of Pittsburgh.” In some groups, there is the basic level of denial, as in a recent case of moving pedophile priests between countries. In others, there is the minimization of the problem, which sometimes leads to suicide by victims of RASA, as in the recent case of a Baptist victim. I believe that my survivor instinct pushed me towards being an overachiever for the majority of my life; that became part of my cellular makeup because of the repetitive nature of being traumatized. These kinds of behaviors can so easily take us off track of what our individual purpose (our true passion) is in this beautiful universe. In the two years that I have been away from a life as a professor, I have I’ve found it to be a slippery slope to discern what I think I should do (outside) versus what I’m meant to do (my passion in life). My passion is to help end all sexual abuse, particularly RASA and to help create environments that are healing for the 20% or more of members of any church, temple, mosque, or synagogue that have experienced various kinds of abuse and survive without healing. Progress is slow and steady. I am meeting people who have similar visions and beginning to implement trainings related to Safe Church and Healthy Environments. People from the Center for Progressive Renewal in Atlanta. People from Kyros Ministries in CA. People from the Southern California/ Nevada United Church of Christ who will join me for an Introduction to Safe Churches and Healing Environments February 5 in Los Angeles. Modifying King’s words, I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of sexual abuse, particularly Religious Authority Sexual Abuse, that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood (i.e., safety and healing) can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
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