FEATURED INTERVIEW

 Building a Family Narrative Across Generations & Viewpoints

The Spirit Fire Global Broadcast Series is collecting reflections and memories from many Catholics and others regarding the scandal of sexual abuse in the U.S. Church – with an emphasis on a personal experience. We hope to foster listening and understanding many experiences and to being a relational healing that extends far more broadly than institutional reform. Much has been released in this regard about the institution, but little of the family of the Church.

Storytelling is by its nature relational. It is the opposite of abuse, which isolates us and alienates us. Storytelling can be a path to hearing and knowing each other in whole new ways that add dimension to the wounds we all share. 

Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, OFM, Cap., has graciously agreed to be the inaugural guest for The Spirit Fire Global Broadcast Series on Abuse and Faith. His singular pastoral leadership since the first wave of abuse revelations has been a light for many who have been harmed - and who work for reform and healing in hope.

Contributing to Our Catholic Story, Cardinal Seán shares reflections and memories of the grief and struggle among survivors and many others whom he has encountered over decades, serving as a pastor of several dioceses wounded by historical abuse and in many other related roles, most recently as President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. 

Cardinal Seán also describes what the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has been tasked to do, ways survivors and others have sought healing in some safe connection with the Church, and measures taken to promote safety in the future.

28 Minutes

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

• Pope Francis's Document Instituting the Commission & Its Purpose
• Cardinal Sean Appointed Commission President
• National Catholic Reporter article roundup
• wikipedia

Archbishop of Boston

• Archdiocese of Boston
• Office of Child Protection
• Open Letter to Survivors
• Cardinal Seán's blog
• wikipedia: Cardinal Seán 

Here's a webpage to bookmark for when anyone you know is in crisis - for them, and for you or others who seek to help. This is not a replacement for calling 911 in an emergency when someone is in danger, but many crises can be defused with the trained staff at specialized help- and hotlines, that is, often people who've "been there" and have since been trained to help others. In terms of being up-to-date, we test all the links and phone numbers once a year, just before Christmas.

We encourage you to keep a journal in the coming months of this conference and write your responses to weekly questions.

Some people plan to discuss the weekly broadcasts with each other - and to share memories and reflections with a group or friends or with others at their parishes (via teleconference, for now). Who might you share with?

FIRST MEMORY

What is the earliest case of child sexual abuse by a member of the clergy that you can remember? (For fellow survivors: The answer may be quite different from all others following these questions. Please do not permit your answers to trigger deeper pain than you already carry.)

1. How did you come to know about it? 
2. How was it handled by the Church? 
3. How was it reported in the press? 
4. How did it affect you?
5. How did people to whom you were close at that time respond? 
6. Did it challenge your faith, or the faith of anyone you knew? How?
7. What do you wish you knew then that you know now?
8. Can you think of someone who, due to age or location, might have had a very different answer to this question? Why don't you consider giving them a call and hearing what they respond? Add this to your journal, too.

SECOND MEMORY

Please write a bit about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer-prize winning Spotlight series was publishing in 2002? 

1. Was it the first time you heard about the issue of child sexual abuse?
2. Before 2002, had you heard of clergy abuse? What did you think?
3. What are your memories of discussions you may have had about the Spotlight articles?
4. If you were not yet born - or were very young, as many Catholics today were - what do you know of these articles and their impact? 
5. How do people around you react to/remember these events?
6. What is your impression of the impact of each of these watersheds in the U.S. Catholic Church as an institution?
7. How have these events affected your faith in the Church? 

John Garvey, President of The Catholic University of America shares his memories and reflections as we build OUR CATHOLIC STORY.

Did you know our whole agenda is posted right here for you?