1 / 39

Professionally Assisting in a “Pastoral Response” to the Issue of Sexual Abuse in the Church

APSAC’s 13 th National Colloquium New Orleans, Louisiana June 2005. Professionally Assisting in a “Pastoral Response” to the Issue of Sexual Abuse in the Church. Thomas F.Carr, M.A.,LMFT, LMHC, LCSW Pastoral Response Assistance Team Inc. Natick, Massachusetts U.S.A.

lance
Download Presentation

Professionally Assisting in a “Pastoral Response” to the Issue of Sexual Abuse in the Church

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. APSAC’s 13th National Colloquium New Orleans, Louisiana June 2005 Professionally Assisting in a “Pastoral Response” to the Issue of Sexual Abuse in the Church Thomas F.Carr, M.A.,LMFT, LMHC, LCSW Pastoral Response Assistance Team Inc. Natick, Massachusetts U.S.A. www.pastoralresponse.org

  2. Clergy Sexual Abuse The American Problem Poland, Argentina, Germany 2002 Scotland 1996 A WORLD PROBLEM Ireland 1992 Canada 1991 France Switzerland U.K. Austria 1995

  3. Timeline: Catholic Church and Sex Abuse Cases • 1984- Gilbert Gauthe ,Lafayette ,Louisiana • Cardinal Bernard Law made Archbishop of Boston, visits St. Luke’s Institute in Maryland • 1985-Rev. Peterson & Rev. Doyle The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a Comprehensive and Responsible Manner

  4. Timeline: Catholic Church and Sex Abuse Cases • 1986- Jason Berry writes articles • 1989- SNAP founded by Barbara Blaine Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests

  5. Timeline: Catholic Church and Sex Abuse Cases • 1992 - U.S.Bishops agree to establish national Policy to deal with the crisis • Father James Porter case, • Fall River, Massachusetts

  6. Pastoralresponse.org

  7. “To heal wounds, to reunite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way” St. Francis of Assisi Family

  8. Archdiocese of Boston Founded in 1808 became Archdiocese in 1875 357 Parishes 131 Schools Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 1984-2002

  9. Archdiocese of Boston 1993-1994 Pastoral Response Assistance Team

  10. Timeline: Catholic Church and Sex Abuse Cases • 1992 Father John Hanlon, • Hingham, Massachusetts Archdiocese of Boston • 1993- Restoring Trust: A Pastoral Response to Sexual Abuse • 1997 Diocese of Dallas Texas found negligent and ordered to pay 119.6 million (later reduced to 31 million)

  11. Joseph Bernardin 1928-1996 1993 accused of sexual abuse

  12. John Geoghan • Most Reverend John M. D’Arcy • Auxiliary Bishop of Boston • Office of the Regional Bishop • December 7, 1984 • Dear Archbishop Law: • “Fr. Geoghan has a history of homosexual involvement with young boys”

  13. January 2002

  14. We must understand sexual abuse in the context of time . • When did the abuse occur ? • In the 50’s,60’s, 70’s, 80’s , 90’s • What did we (professionals and non professionals) know about sexual abuse… at that time? • What was the age of the victim and how will they recall (process) what happened ?

  15. Washington Post • Around 1957, Reverend Gerald Fitzgerald the founder of Via Coeli, in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, wrote to a New Hampshire Bishop, “from our long experience with characters of this type …their repentance and amendment to treatment is superficial…a new diocese means only green pastures”. April 22, 2003One Diocese’s Early Warning on Sexual Abuse ’50s Records Reflect Bishops Taking Risksby Alan Cooperman

  16. Basic Child Development • Children remember things based on their age and development. • Recall a smell more than a specific event. • Believe the event took longer or person involved was larger. • As people get older the event may only get more distorted.

  17. Responsibility Cause and effect Coping Integration of event into self Forgiveness Sin Responsibility Higher Power We must learn to engage and collaborate with the faith community to work with individuals and families addressing a multitude of issues including:

  18. Faith communities may not accept or adopt tenets of accepted practice of the protective service or mental health communities Sexual Orientation masturbation Cohabitation parent-church authority corporal punsihment (spanking/hitting/use of implement -belt)

  19. Give Us [Your] Tools To Work With the Problem

  20. Protective workers and mental health communities need to treat faith communities much the same way they treat families… While upholding societal imperatives for the protection of children they must acknowledge and respect the individual beliefs.

  21. Archdiocese of Boston

  22. “Our Trust Has Been Violated But Not Our Faith” New York Times 2/29/04

  23. The number of sexual abuse cases substantiated by child protective services [CPS] agencies in the United States dropped a remarkable 40% between 1992 and 2000 Explanations for the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases , David Finkelhor & Lisa Jones, OJJDP Bulletin, January 2004

  24. Office of the Attorney General Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Sexual Abuse of Children in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston A Report by the Attorney General: July 23, 2003 http://www.ago.state.ma.us/archdiocese.pdf  237 Priests since 1940 (102 in Archdiocese files) 789 (total)Victims

  25. Duration of Clergy Sexual Abuse for Individual Victims

  26. Number of individual victims per clergy perpetrator

  27. Age of individual victims 40% = 11-14

  28. Percentage of 10,667 allegations filed in the United States by Year > 13% of reports were made in the Year in which the abuse occurred < 25% of reports were made more than 30 years after the alleged abuse

  29. Public Evaluation of Media Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse in General and Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy in Ireland Time to Listen:Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland (2003) Goode,Helen, McGee, Hannah, & O’Boyle Ciaran, Dublin, Ireland, Liffey Press

  30. Sources of Knowledge of Child Sexual Abuse in Ireland Time to Listen:Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland (2003) Goode,Helen, McGee, Hannah, & O’Boyle Ciaran, Dublin, Ireland, Liffey Press

  31. From 1950-2003 a total of 2324 diocesan priests were working in Boston. During that same time 164 of these men were alleged to have sexually abused a minor. There were 54 other priests, who were not technically diocesan priests, who were also accused.

  32. A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People 3211 Forth Street NE Washington, D.C. 20017-1194 U.S.A. February 27, 2004

  33. Web sites • PastoralResponse.org • BishopAccountability.org • SurvivorsFirst.org • Archdiocese of Bostonhttp://www.rcab.org/ • Boston Globehttp://www.boston.com/globe/ • Survivors Network of those Abused by Priestshttp://www.survivorsnetwork.org/Voice of the Faithfulhttp://www.votf.org/index.html

  34. Let us endeavor to begin, knowing full well that the future begins not with the dawn of tomorrow… Nay…It begins today…It comes not with time, but with action….And so lets us take that action…

  35. CHICAGO, March 9 — A searing new play that opened here last week offers a vivid look at how Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston reacted to the sex abuse scandal in his archdiocese. Most of the dialogue in this play, "Sin: A Cardinal Deposed," is taken from testimony that Cardinal Law gave in pretrial depositions in 2002 and 2003. The rest is from letters and public statements by Roman Catholic priests, doctors, victims of abuse and their parents. \

More Related