New kit encourages victims to report abuse, offers healing prayers

Published: 2004-07-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new packet of materials encouraging victims to report incidents of sexual abuse and offering prayers toward healing for past victims is being made available to all U.S. Catholic parishes by the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse. In a letter to his fellow bishops, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, committee chairman, said the informational kit was both an outreach to victims and their families and a sign to the general Catholic population about "the efforts we are making to respond to and prevent acts of abuse." The kit includes a 14-inch-by-17-inch color poster directed at victims, with a space for including specific information about how to contact the victim assistance coordinator in the local diocese. "If you have been abused or victimized by a member of the Catholic clergy, please believe in the possibility for hope and help and healing," the poster says. "We encourage you to come forward and speak out."

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