AUSTRALIA
The Catholic Leader
December 4, 2017
By Emilie Ng
SEVENTEEN abuse survivors are sitting in a room in Hobart as a Catholic priest guides them through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For several days the survivors have unpatched hidden wounds caused by traumatic abuse experiences in their childhood or adult life.
There are a number of people who were sexually abused by clergy, others were the victims of horrific violence, and still more were violated by their own families.
They all long for one thing – to be healed.
Anne Sherston is observing the faces of these survivors, many of whom have kept their abuse a secret for decades upon decades.
Their faces are beginning to change; that spark in their spirit is coming back to life.
It’s what Anne calls the “magnificent” transformation that occurs in people who go on a Grief to Grace retreat.
Grief to Grace is a Catholic ministry founded in America by counselling psychologist Dr Theresa Burke to provide psychological and spiritual healing for survivors of abuse.
The retreat is offered to people who were abused in any way in their history, whether physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, or sexual, including institutional and clergy child sexual abuse, rape, incest or neglect.
According to a 1999 report on ending violence against women, one in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused.
Open to men and women of all religions, and Catholic clergy or religious, Grief to Grace retreats last for five to seven days and take participants on a spiritual pilgrimage towards healing.
There are no spectators on the retreat; every single person making the retreat has, in some way or another, experienced abuse.
Anne is the first person to bring the retreat to Australia and ran her first successful retreat this year.
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