ROME
The Irish Catholic
Those affected by abuse need extra special care – expert
Catholics who are too angry, disillusioned or afraid to return to the Church because of clerical sexual abuse need very special care, according to an observer attending the Synod of Bishops.
Maria Harries, a member of Australia’s Truth, Justice, Healing Council said in an interview that abuse by clergy has led to a crisis of faith and a loss of trust in the Church’s moral authority.
Explaining that many people no longer go to Mass, “because of the abuse and we have to work out ways to deal with that,” she said that the shockwaves of abuse and its mishandling can be felt across multiple generations and among extended families and friends.
Asking “how do you address now a community of pain, a community of agony and a community of trauma?” she also pointed out that those hurt by abuse include members of religious congregations who have been accused of doing little or nothing to stop abuse. Such religious who have “always lived good lives and who feel terribly tainted and embarrassed and traumatised by what their brothers have done” are also shattered or disoriented, making them “another set of victims” that needs recognition and a pastoral response, she said.
– See more at: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/synod-briefs#sthash.BWRXclYJ.dpuf
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