Diocese Postpones More Abuse Healing Services to 2018

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Gallup Independent
March 9, 2017

http://gallupindependent.com/

GALLUP – Diocese of Gallup officials announced rescheduled dates for six postponed healing services for survivors of clergy sexual abuse Wednesday and at the same time rescheduled two more upcoming healing services.

All eight newly rescheduled healing services are slated to take place in March 2018.

Bishop James S. Wall initially scheduled 36 healing services in Catholic parishes and schools across the Diocese of Gallup over a 15-month period as a way to fulfill a nonmonetary provision of the diocese’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. According to the plan, the bishop is required to visit each operating Catholic parish or school in which sexual abuse occurred or where identified abusers served.

However, diocesan officials have yet to update their published list of 31 credibly accused sex abusers, which they released in December 2014. This list should include additional names of clerics named as abusers by bankruptcy court claimants who received financial settlements as part of the plan of reorganization. An updated list of credibly accused abusers would likely add more healing services to the bishop’s schedule.

In January, the bishop canceled services in Lumberton and Farmington in New Mexico and services in Chinle, Page and Tuba City in Arizona because of Wall’s illness and medical appointments. In February Wall canceled the healing service in St. Johns, Arizona, because it had been scheduled the same evening as his annual Mardi Gras fundraising event in Gallup.

More postponements

Suzanne Hammons, spokeswoman for the Gallup Diocese, said two more healing services, slated to be held in Overgaard and Snowflake, Arizona, in July are also being pushed back to March 2018. She said these latest postponements are because of Wall’s participation in the Tekakwitha Conference, a national organization for Native American Catholics.

“Bishop Wall is the Chairman for the (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’) subcommittee on Native American Affairs, and in that capacity he was invited to celebrate the conference’s main Mass on Friday, July 21,” Hammons wrote in an email Thursday.

The 2017 Tekakwitha Conference is scheduled for July 19-23 in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The rescheduled dates for the eight postponed healing services are as follows:

• March 1, 2018, at 6 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi in Lumberton.

• March 2, 2018, at 6 p.m. at Sacred Heart Parish and School in Farmington.

• March 9, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Fatima in Chinle, Arizona.

• March 10, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Page, Arizona.

• March 11, 2018, at 1 p.m. at St. Jude in Tuba City, Arizona.

• March 15, 2018, at 6 p.m. at St. John the Baptist in St. Johns, Arizona.

• March 16, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at Our Lady of the Assumption in Overgaard, Arizona.

• March 17, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at Our Lady of the Snows in Snowflake, Arizona.

For survivors of clergy sex abuse who do not want to attend the Diocese of Gallup’s healing services, Elizabeth Terrill, the victims’ assistance coordinator pro tem, is available to schedule a meeting with the bishop in a different setting. Terrill is also responsible for coordinating counseling services for abuse survivors who request it.

Terrill can be contacted at 505-906-7357.