Group Creates Healing Garden at Parish

By Jill Tatge-Rozell
The Kenosha News
October 19, 2013

http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/group_creates_healing_garden_at_parish_473873190.html

A focal point of the Healing Garden at Holy Family Church in Chicago is the sculpture Circle of Love. , depicting the Holy Family that is a gift of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

The Healing Garden at Holy Family Parish in Chicago is a place where victims of clergy abuse can go to feel free from fear, shame and judgment.

“We want it to be a place where people will find compassion, comfort and healing,” Donna Polencheck, a member of the planning committee, said.

Polencheck, of Twin Lakes, is one of four victim-survivors who were asked by the Archdiocese of Chicago to help make the garden, dedicated on June 9, 2011, a reality. The committee also included two diocesan priests and staff from the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth.

“Being able to serve on the Healing Garden Committee has been a tremendous catalyst in my growth,” Polencheck said. “I can now manage my anger and overwhelming fears.”

Being involved in the project also helped Polencheck find her way back to the church.

“I have recently returned to attending Mass and receiving the sacraments with great joy,” Polencheck said. “The pain will always be there, but I have channeled it into helping others.”

The garden was the site of a recent Mass of Atonement, attended by hundreds who prayed for the protection of children.

“It is not just for those who have been abused,” Polencheck said. “It is also for those whose faith has been shaken by the stories.”

The location of the garden at Holy Family Parish, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road in Chicago, is an appropriate testament to survival and strength, Polencheck said. Holy Family Church is one of only two to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The lush gardens symbolize rebirth and growth. Polencheck said there are more than 25 varieties of trees, plants and flowers.

But it is the centerpiece of the garden, a sculpture called The Circle of Love, that Polencheck said is her favorite detail. The sculpture depicts the Holy Family joyfully dancing together.

“The statue is very moving to me,” she said. “They are dancing — smiling — in a circle of love. It is very uplifting.”

The bronze sculpture, a work by artist George Michael Myers of Prescott, Ariz., weighs just under 600 pounds. It is a gift from the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Contact: jrozell@kenoshanews.com