Mary A. Lentz, a Cleveland-based lawyer and author of parent guides on preventing child sexual abuse, has just completed a survey for U.S. Catholic bishops of victims' perceptions of the pastoral care they are being offered. Some dioceses are making an effort to reach out to victims and their families, she said, but others "have not been so progressive."
For victims to feel reconciled to the church, Lentz said, "at some point, the head of the diocese should meet with the victim" and that diocesan officials should "acknowledge the abuse and apologize without being asked to do so." If you are a bishop, she added, "you can't put your talking head out there. Someone is needed who truly understands, and empathizes" with what the victims have gone through.
Church officials sometimes fail to recognize that psychic wounds from childhood sexual abuse take years to heal and therefore require a long-term commitment to outreach by the church, she said.
Too often, this outreach is passive and "feels corporate . . . like simply meeting the written standard," said Mark Serrano, regional representative of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims' advocacy group that most dioceses still see as an adversary rather than a partner.
Healing Masses might be good, Serrano added, but "how about including us in the planning for a Mass like that?"
It was precisely such cooperation that made the March 2004 atonement service that Keeler held at St. Joseph Catholic Community in Eldersburg, Md., unusual in the Washington region.
The event was organized by a group that included victims, clergy, concerned lay Catholics and Baltimore archdiocese employees. Their months-long planning for the service was part of the healing process, said Edwina Stewart, 66, a clinical social worker.
Keeler also published a list of all known priest abusers in his diocese, which helped break the silence surrounding sexual abuse -- a requisite for healing, Lentz said. As a result, more than 60 victims came forward, archdiocesan spokesman Sean Caine said.
Caine said that "any victim who requested a meeting directly with Keeler got one."
In the Arlington diocese, which covers Northern Virginia, Bishop Paul S. Loverde has celebrated six of the 10 healing Masses organized by the diocese in the past year, said its victim assistance coordinator, Patricia Mudd. The Masses drew a total of about 700 people, and trained counselors were available at receptions afterward, she said.
Mudd said that Loverde has met privately with at least three abuse victims and spoken with a handful of others after the Masses.
Bill Casey, co-leader of the Northern Virginia chapter of Voice of the Faithful -- an organization of lay Catholics that aims to support victims and create structural changes in the Church -- praised the Masses as a good step. But he said his group believes the events should be advertised in the secular press and at 12-step programs, where victims are most likely to see the notices. Up till now, they have been advertised in parish bulletins and the diocesan newspaper.
