Healing the wounds

World bishops and religious superiors convened in Rome to proffer a decisive, "global response" to the tragedy of sexual abuse and reiterate the commitment to protecting minors and vulnerable people from abuse inside the Church. The International symposium titled "Towards healing and renewal" was held in Rome’s Gregorian University, attended by delegates from 110 bishops’ Conferences and the heads of 30 religious orders. The meeting took place within the framework of Benedict XVI‘s words: "The healing for abuse victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community", together with "a profound renewal of the Church at every level".Cases submitted to the Holy See. In his opening remarks Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the current the state of affairs. In recent years, "under the careful guidance of the then-Prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger", the Congregation tackled a "growing numbers of reports of sexual abuse of minors by clergy", that surfaced also as a result of the media publicity worldwide. More than 4000 such cases were reported to the Congregation over the past decade. These cases "have revealed, on the one hand, the inadequacy of an exclusively canonical (or canon law) response to this tragedy, and on the other, the necessity of a truly multi-faceted response". His Eminence highlighted the utmost commitment of the Pope, the Holy See and the Bishops’ Conferences "to find the best ways to help victims, protect children, and form the priests of today and tomorrow to be aware of this scourge and to eliminate it from the priesthood". And the symposium in Rome is a token of such commitment. The victims’ suffering. Marie Collins, abuse victim, and Sheila Hollins, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, coping with cases of trauma and sexual abuse – called by card. Cormac Murphy-O’Connor to assist him in the Vatican Visitation to the Diocese of Armagh in Ireland in 2011 to listen about clerical sexual abuse from victims and their families, from parishioners, priests, religious – delivered a panel speech on “Healing a Wound at the Heart of the Church and Society”. "Not being believed or even worse, being blamed for the abuse, adds hugely to the emotional and mental suffering caused by sexual abuse, and how the failure of an abuser to admit his guilt, or of his superiors to take appropriate action, further compounds the damage", said Sheila Hollins. Marie Collins, Irish, a victim of sexual abuse by a Chaplain in a hospital at the age of 13, over fifty years ago, shared her experience: "The fact that my abuser was a priest added to the great confusion in my mind". "This added weight to my feelings of guilt and the conviction that what had happened was my fault; not his". Ms. Collins told journalists how hard it was to share her experience in an auditorium before world Church leaders. But she also said she nourishes the hope that such symposiums may help the Church in the path towards renewal. The force of forgiveness. "We, called to bring redemption to the ‘little ones’, have in some cases become the instruments of evil against them". The words spoken by the bishop on behalf of all world bishops echoed in Rome’s St. Ignatius Church where a prayer vigil was held led by Card. Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. It was the highlight of the symposium, and in order to ask forgiveness in a climate of silence and darkness were a cardinal, a bishop, an educator, a religious superior, a priest, a religious, a faithful. "This gesture of purification involves the entire Church, and each one of us – Bishops, Religious Superiors, educators, all Christians – feels the pain of what has occurred", said Cardinal Marc Ouellet. "As members of the Church, we must have the courage to ask humbly for God’s pardon, as well as for the forgiveness of His ‘little ones’ who have been wounded; we must remain close to them on their road of suffering, seeking in every possible way to heal and bind up their wounds following the example of the Good Samaritan. The first step on this road is to listen to them carefully and to believe their painful stories".