The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

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 ...