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SURVIVOR Community News
COMMEMORATING the fifth anniversary of the public disclosure of clergy sexual
abuse and its cover up, January 6, 2002 in the Boston Globe:
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From Ann Hagan Webb, SNAP New England Coordinator,
781-239-1182:
On SUNDAY JANUARY 7, 2007, SNAP (The Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests) and STTOP (Speak Truth to
Power) will host a PANEL PRESENTATION featuring
David Clohessy, National President of SNAP, Carmen Durso, lawyer for clergy
abuse survivors, Walter Robinson, Boston Globe spotlight team,
and others in Boston. A solidarity march recognizing that the “crisis
isn’t
over” will begin at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross at 1:30 p.m.
It will proceed to the New England School of Law (154 Stuart St., Boston
where David Clohessy will lead a
panel discussion on: SECRETS TOLD — A Five Year Retrospective on
Clergy Abuse.
SNAP is also scheduling events in the several other locations. For the
latest update go to SNAP’s
website.
HEART OF SORROW, HEART OF WISDOM: A MEMORIAL OF HOPE AND RENEWAL FOR THE SEXUAL
ABUSE TRAGEDY
This is a proposal for a memorial of the sexual abuse tragedy by Samuel Fuller
O.F.M. Cap. Fuller is an artist/sculptor and a student at the Weston Jesuit
School of Theology who conceived of this memorial as a class project. A scale
model is currently on display at the EDS/Weston Library.
VOTF and SNAP members as well as all interested individuals are invited to
view the exhibit and meet the artist on Monday, January 8, at 7:00 PM. We will
gather at 5 Phillips Pl., Cambridge, on the campus of Weston Jesuit and then
go to the Library across the street. Refreshments will be served. On street
parking is available especially in the area around the Cambridge Common. The
school is located close to the Common and near the Sheraton Commander Hotel.
Zingerplatz Pictures announced the long promised DVD release
of its Award winning feature length documentary, “Hand of God.” This full-length ”Director’s
Cut” version of the film – as seen at film festivals and other
screenings across the country – is now available for purchase by credit
card directly from the “Hand of God” film website. Go to the “Buy
the DVD” page where you can utilize Google. For residents of Boston’s
North Shore, the DVD can also be purchased at CinemaSalem – the site
of several sold-out screenings of the film. Other stores may be supplying the
DVD in the coming months.
Hand of God also premieres
on PBS’ Frontline on January 16th at 9:00pm.
For more details click here.
Carolyn
Disco, VOTF NH, reviews "Hand
of God".
NEW Leadership in
the Survivor Support Working Group – Kris Ward
Kris distributed the message below on December 28
Today, December 28, is the Feast of the Innocents. As
we mark it we are nine days from the fifth anniversary
of the breaking of the clergy sexual abuse
scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston on January 6, 2002.
Today speaks in a chilling way of the horror and tragedy. Murder in the first
century speaks to us across 20 centuries into the third millennium where again
there is horror inflicted upon innocents, the victims of clergy sexual abuse.
This feast dates back as far as the fourth century. It is a curious coincidence
that we now know from Father Doyle, Richard Sipe and Patrick Wall’s book,
Sex, Priests and Secret Code that the sexual abuse of children goes back to
the fourth century as well.
It seems, in a sad yet real way, that this day should come before the anniversary — the
Epiphany of our knowledge of the scandal, and the beginning of the faithful’s
response in our movement as Voice of the Faithful. The victim survivors, their
families, those who did not survive and their families, suffered for so long
in a limbo of sorts before the
scandal broke. In this space of days, we can give honor to their suffering
by re-pledging ourselves to the support of survivors and reinvigorating our
efforts to show and be that support. There is so much more to be done and so
many more people needed to do it. .
There is a passing of the torch this day, an appropriate day we believe, for
news of the Survivor Support Working Group. Steve Sheehan and Marge Bean who
have diligently carried the leadership of this Working Group have asked for
reinforcements — and rightly so. They have labored long and hard. I and
they believe that there are members of Voice of the Faithful throughout the
country and the world who will walk this painful but, oh so necessary journey
with them and use all of our will and mien to bring as much good out of this
tragedy as can be done. Nothing is impossible with God.
I am honored to become the chair of this Working Group and with this message
invite your participation as well. This is a Working Group without limitation.
Please don’t hold back.
Anniversaries are times to take stock. They are deeply part of our lives as
Catholics and as close to us as the anniversaries we mark each year of the
Nativity and the sacred Triduum.
As we come to the brink of this important anniversary for our movement, please
take time on this Feast of the Innocents to re-examine what impelled you to
join Voice of the Faithful.
There would be no opportunity for reform in our time if not for the suffering
of the innocents. The Survivor Support Working Group seeks your support ---
and your action.
Please take a moment to join. We will keep the whole organization abreast of
our news but there is much work and action needed. --- across the country and
the world. If not you, then who?
Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea, a psychologist who works with survivors of
sexual abuse, comments in the Dec. 29 issue of National Catholic Reporter; “Since
sexual abuse of young people by priests drew national attention in 2002, church
officials have offered a litany of assertions that things are not really as
bad as they seem, or that groups and individuals, such as the scandal-obsessed
media or those opposed to the teachings of the church, are engaging with the
crisis to advance their own agendas. Lately, there is a new word on the street.
Now, according to the claims of spokespersons for the church, it’s plaintiffs’ attorneys
and their greedy clients who are victimizing the Catholic church and fueling
the scandal.” Subscribers can access the full text at the NCR website.
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