NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, March 10, 2014

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP – While the Diocese of Gallup has garnered headlines because of its bankruptcy proceedings, Sister Rene Backe has given a lot of thought to a group of people who live in the shadow of those headlines.

After praying about what she could do to support victims of clergy sex abuse, Backe, the director of Gallup’s Sacred Heart Retreat Center, decided to invite others to pray the Stations of the Cross during Lent and pray for victims of abuse. Everyone is welcome to participate in the prayer services, held at 6 p.m. Wednesdays in the retreat center’s chapel.

“In my own mind it just didn’t seem enough to offer people money for the pain they endured,” she said in an interview at the chapel Friday. “It’s a sin against…