The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

I was in Eastern and Southern Oregon walking through small, rural towns and on scenic trails to raise awareness about abuse when the news came about an abusive priest, Fr. Angel Armando Perez,  in Woodburn, Oregon.  The abuse was very recent and the child reported it, and his family supported him, and the police supported him, and the priest was arrested. The family support and the arrest frequently did not happen in the past. We’ve made progress, real progress.  The abuse happened, but at least most of the response to the abuse was appropriate.   I could not comment on what had happened when I was walking through towns and on trails in the distant parts of Oregon.  My internet access was intermittent, and I had my two teenagers to care for and a schedule to keep, and the two teenagers didn’t want to share the computer with me. When I returned home to Portland, I read Abuse Tracker and saw Randy Ellison's blog on the case.  Randy...

One day a dozen years ago or so I pulled my car into my driveway after grocery shopping to find a middle aged woman rummaging through my recycling bin and placing my used soda cans and bottles in a shopping cart.  Instantly I felt annoyed that someone was taking my stuff even if it was my garbage.  So I honked my horn at her. She looked up, her eyes wide with humiliation. By the time I parked my car at the top of the driveway I experienced a change of heart.  I wondered the woman or her husband had lost a job or if someone in her family was struggling with a major illness.  So I opened up the hatchback and grabbed a loaf of bread from a grocery bag and ran to the base of my driveway.  My driveway is short, and I live in the middle of the block, but the woman and her grocery cart were gone.  I peered up the block and down the block and across the street, but I couldn’t even see any sign of her anywhere.  I wondered how a middle aged woma...

Our politicians are at it again -- playing games rather than trying to solve problems.  Now they are playing with VAWA.  VAWA is the Violence Against Women Act, which was passed in 1994 to improve criminal justice and community support for victims of abuse.  Among other things, VAWA provides federal money for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers and other programs to end abuse and support survivors. When the act was renewed in 2000 and 2005, congress added provisions enhancing services for various categories of victims including the disabled, teenaged victims of dating violence and others.  This year, congress added new protections for illegal immigrants, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender individuals and Native American women.  Republicans placed a hold on current legislation, demanding that these new provisions be removed.  So far Democrats have refused to comply. My concern for VAWA comes from what I have learned since 2008, fro...

Clergy abuse?  Is it over?  No!!!!!!! Many clergy abuse survivors still in the Church remain silent. Many survivors remain estranged from the Church. The Bishops requested 20 plus years of e-mails from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests costing them huge sums of money to protect the confidentiality of survivors. Despite the 2002 Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Young People, survivors abused in the last 10 years continue to come forward. The whole community is wounded and the whole community needs to be involved in the healing process. Come to Ascension Catholic Church to be a part of the healing process. July 14, 2012 11 AM to Noon 743 SE 76th Avenue Portland, OR 97215 St. Francis Room Cost:  free, but registration required Contact: Virginia Jones at  ph# 503-866-6163 or E-mail compassion500@gmail.com Elizabeth Goeke was a young Benedictine nun in 1965, when her confessor assaulted her on Christmas Eve.  She was told to keep ...

Background Information: Louis Bauschard: A Life Dedicated to Breaking the Cycle of Abuse Louise Baushcard started her adult life as a stay at home mother before going back to school during the flowering of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s.  She studied Social Work with an emphasis on Women’s Studies. Her studies and her mentors inspired her to open a Women’s Self Help Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1976, to bring women together and empower them to create positive changes in their lives -- a noble goal that would soon be subsumed by specific problems of an overwhelming nature.  Within a short time, phone calls came in to the Center seeking help for physical abuse and sexual abuse, and the mission of the center transformed to that of a hotline for domestic violence and child sex abuse survivors. The problem of abuse, that has surely always been with us, was just coming out into the open in the 1970s.  Much secrecy, guilt and shame surrounds ...

All priests and members of religious orders should sign each reply (to this survey) submitted, and included their own estimate of how much money they personally intend to pay for the damages to victims and when.  Responses will then be initialed by their immediate supervisors, collated and tabulated by their superiors, audited by victim owned accounting firms, results published in all the places named in Question 8b, which would be mandatorily subscribed to by every church, and placed daily on the dining table in every residence inhabited by priests and members of religious orders.  The independent auditor would also be hired by priests and members of religious orders to conduct an evaluation of effectiveness for the aforementioned process with continual review and change, in perpetuity. --Anonymous survivor of clergy abuse I really appreciate this survivor’s support.  I quite agree with him, but I can’t even remotely attempt to do this without much more support ...