A Free Online Seminar Relationships, Strong Connections, & Mental Health in the Church The strain and pressure on people’s everyday relationships are mounting—and it’s not always clear where people can turn for help. Barna, in partnership with the Boone Center for the Family and Pepperdine University, set out to...
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is offering a novena for healing among clergy-abuse survivors, starting April 18, 2020. Its invitation was posted online, and has a webpage that will feature each day’s prayer at a different site in the archdiocese. Please consider joining and offering something similar in your...
If you are interested in encouraging your parish to hold a Pinwheels for Prevention event, The Healing Voices Magazine has prepared a Do-It-Yourself Kit which will be available on April 10, 2019. Or, email us here. We encourage parishes to work with their diocesan Office of Child Protection and...
Many Catholics have been requesting ideas about what their parishes can do in light of the grassroots outcry against continued failures among some Catholic leaders. We have compiled a list of suggestions for Catholic action now, close to home, person to person, for use by Catholics. Please share with...
T. Pitt Green, Founder Would you consider holding an event that can give abused kids or teens hope – and a message there’s somewhere to go? I remember, like most child abuse survivors remember, some random thing someone said, or some line from a movie, or some poster we...
No Other Child Michael D. Hoffman In March 2011, Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago, wrote: The voices of those who have been sexually abused as children are often heard only years, even decades, after the children have been hurt. In meeting with those who have been abused, I have heard again and again...
Joining Forces Michael D. Hoffman, Founder I was invited to join the Board of Directors of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois in 2013. I had reached out to the Executive Director of PCA Illinois, Mr. Roy Harley, through Jennifer Samartano, the Regional Child Abuse Prevention Specialist in Northern Illinois. I...
Healing Voices Special Recognition The Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton has been awarded Praesidium Accreditation®, an honour that publicly demonstrates that it has worked to achieve the highest standards in abuse prevention. At the direction of Archbishop Richard Smith, the Archdiocese has worked since 2010 with Praesidium, an international leader...
By Fr. Bill Stenzel Several years before I was writing pastoral columns as I do now, I was part of a wonderful faith community. Like all communities, it had ups and downs, but it was well grounded in faith and in its own history. It was the 1970’s, and...
Among all its work, Prevent Child Abuse America holds “Pinwheels for Prevention” every April, Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Archdiocese of Chicago joins PCA in planting pinwheel gardens as a reminder of the role we play in protecting children’s and young people’s daily lives. If you would like to plant a pinwheel garden in...