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  Bowie Man Promotes Reform in Catholic Church
Resident Sets up Fund for Victims' Counseling

By Megan King
Gazette
April 3, 2008

http://www.gazette.net/stories/040308/bowinew160551_32361.shtml

The sexual abuse scandal that rocked the U.S. Roman Catholic Church in 2002 has faded from the headlines, but for Bowie resident David Lorenz, memories of the abuse he said he endured as a 15-year-old will never go away.

Between 1974, when he said a Catholic cleric abused him, and 1992, when he finally told his family, Lorenz, 49, said he buried his feelings and had trouble sleeping.

"I had worked up in my mind that I should tell people, but it's a very hard thing to do," he said.

David Lorenz (left)says he was sexually abused by a Catholic cleric as a teen. With his wife, Judy (right), he founded the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, an organization created to address the Catholic Churchs sexual abuse scandal.
Photo by Christopher Anderson

But the abuse galvanized him into action. Today, Lorenz and his wife, Judy, are helping to bring healing and spread awareness of the issue through the Bowie chapter of Voice of the Faithful, which the Lorenzes founded in 2004.

The Voice of the Faithful umbrella organization was started in Boston in 2002 after revelations that priests had sexually abused many children there. Members of the group committed themselves to supporting survivors as well as priests who were offering to help "heal survivors and correct institutional flaws," the organization's Web site said.

The organization has grown from just a few members to 25,000 worldwide, said John Moynihan, the national group's communications director.

The Lorenzes attend St. Pius X Church in Bowie along with their four children, ages 17, 20, 21 and 23, and say their faith has helped them get through the ordeal.

The Bowie chapter, which has about 40 members, holds special Masses and victim talks and works to promote awareness.

At the group's awareness meeting in March, Judy Lorenz urged parents and guardians to talk to their children about sexual abuse so they would learn to speak out and avoid molestation. One couple promised to discuss the matter with their children, she said.

"It struck a chord with them and they were going to do that," Judy Lorenz said.

David Lorenz said that in 1992 he contacted a bishop in his home state of Kentucky, where he said the abuse happened, after the priest who had abused him was convicted of violating other children. Church officials there told him that the problem was taken care of and would never happen again.

So when more revelations of abuse surfaced 10 years later, Lorenz said he decided to start his own efforts to help victims.

"In 2002, when it did happen again, I was pretty upset," he said.

Lorenz's research led him to Voice of the Faithful, and he started the Bowie chapter.

"I know of lots of other victims, and I want them to be supported," he said.

Lorenz received a $350,000 settlement as part of a class-action lawsuit against the Kentucky diocese. A portion of it has been used for attorney fees. He also set up a trust fund to pay for victims' counseling and for charities that help victims.

Gary Williams of University Park and his wife, Josephine, are members of the local chapter.

Williams said the group feels that the church is pushing away devoted members.

"It's hard to understand why the bishops and hierarchy have been so arrogant and presume that [Voice of the Faithful] was something that was a threat to the church," Williams said.

Susan Gibbs, communications director for the Archdiocese of Washington, said although the Catholic Church does not support Voice of the Faithful's national organization, it has complied with requests from the local organization for information and representatives have attended some of their events.

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl has personally met with Lorenz, Gibbs said.

She said the Catholic Church has spent $6 million in direct assistance to 130 people who had reported being abused over a 55-year period. The church has also instituted strict guidelines in which all volunteers, clergy and employees go through a background check and fingerprinting before they are allowed to work with children.

Judy Lorenz said learning of her husband's secret was very difficult, and there were "a lot of tears" when he finally decided to talk about it. She said people should continue to pay attention to the issue and hold the church accountable for its actions.

"We get news every day on it because we're in the loop, but it's not in the headlines every day," she said.

 
 

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