by Brian Fraga
Some clergy sex abuse survivors attend Mass. Others, yearning to be close to the Eucharist, remain connected to the Catholic Church in some way, even if their trauma prevents them from being in church spaces.
"The Eucharist saved my life," said Teresa Pitt Green, a clergy sex abuse survivor who is a practicing Catholic and advocates for survivors through a restorative justice nonprofit she co-founded in 2003.
However, other survivors want nothing to do with the church, or the Eucharist.
"'I feel like nothing can bring me back to the church," said Aimee Torres, a California resident who told National Catholic Reporter that her parish priest abused her when she was a child.
"I just don't feel safe with the church," Torres said. "And you can't be part of an organization where you don't feel safe."
More than 20 years since The Boston Globe uncovered the depth and scope of clergy sex abuse and its cover-up by the hierarchy, Torres' comments speak to a difficult reality that still vexes the Catholic Church even as the U.S. bishops try to revitalize it with a renewed focus on the Eucharist.
Comments