I offer the following in the hope that Voice of the Faithful sees its way clear to offer a message of support to survivors, to the leaders of SNAP and Road to Recovery, and to the membership at large of Voice of the Faithful:

The Survivor Support Working Group of Voice of the Faithful extends its heartfelt concern to survivors of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, religious sisters, religious brothers during the time of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States.

This is, we know, both a difficult and a perilous time for you.

We cannot truly know the depth and severity of your suffering. Humbly, we seek to stand in solidarity with you as you face days of broadcast, print and Internet coverage of Pope Benedict flanked by cardinals and bishops, and surrounded by the highly visual symbolism and ceremony of Catholic liturgies with the built in potential for flashbacks for you.

Even if you wish to avoid it and take care to do so, the preponderance of media attention that has focused on this trip, along with the attention paid by the civil government at its highest level, will make it nearly impossible for you, your families and the families of the victims who committed suicide and those who were murdered, to be unaffected.

You bear in your bodies and psyches pain that no one, most especially, the innocent and vulnerable, should ever have to carry.

For that, we as members of the Roman Catholic Church apologize to you and reiterate to you on the occasion of this papal visit that there can never be enough apology or acknowledgment of your suffering.

We call upon the membership of our organization and by extension all Roman Catholic laity, in addition to the ordained, to be particularly mindful of the noble courage of the survivors who publicly give witness and voice to the horrors of sexual abuse by priests and other religious authority figures.

We call to consciousness for the members of our organization and by extension all Roman Catholic laity, in addition to the ordained, those living and working among us who are victims of sexual abuse by clergy and religious who remain unknown.

We ask for a vigilance during this week that particular care may be taken in conversations in our working environments, our Church lives and our private lives that no action or word of ours will in any way add to the burdens of survivors, their families and the families of the dead.

Sincerely,

Kristine Ward
Chair, Survivor Support Working Group