Teresa Pitt Green

Meet

Co-Founder, Spirit Fire

Teresa Pitt Green is an international speaker, writer, and advocate for trauma-informed pastoral care, which integrates faith with other recovery programs for abuse, trauma, and self-destructive behaviors.

Ministry for 20+ Years

Since 2003, Teresa's commitment to hope and healing continued to find ways to help others integrate faith with their recovery from abuse.

Her work culminated in 2018 when she met fellow survivor Luis A. Torres, Jr., who had spent the same number of years serving on a review board and playing an active role in a developing survivor community in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.

Together, Luis and Teresa founded Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice initiative within the Catholic Church for the sole purpose of promoting trauma-informed dialogue for survivors, families, parishes, and communities wounded by the betrayal of abuse.

Now, Spirit Fire offers many free resources and consultation, working in friendship with the Catholic Church and other Christian groups.

Person to Person

All healing in personal. Spirit Fire is all about listening to individual stories as they develop through healing surrounded by a growing network of safety and authentic support. The irreducible dignity of each human person is at the heart of Spirit Fire workshops and retreats, pastoral care programs and conferences.

The Global Church

Teresa ministry has been invited to support international fact-finding groups for years, most recently to the Polish Bishops Conference as it developed a guide to pastoral care following trauma.

Her collaboration with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors began when she first hosted private meetings between survivors and their families with members of the Commission. She was invited in 2018 to deliver opening remarks for the first Vatican summit on pastoral care for survivors. She served on the North American Working Group offering feedback to organizers planning the first International Safeguarding Conference in 2023 and was glad to donate all her existing resources for use globally through the Pontifical Commission's library.

The United States Catholic Church

Teresa and Luis spoke together twice before the General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, particularly following the Summer of 2018 when the Theodore McCarrick scandal was broken on a national scale.

She has also spoken before the National Review Board, and other conferences, committees and working groups of the USCCB and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men promoting a trauma-informed approach to survivors and their families.

Teresa continues to offer retreats and training programs for religious communities and dioceses and serves on religious and diocesan review boards, advisory groups and panels.

Human Trafficking

From 2017 until 2021, Teresa served as Chair of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement, service agencies, NGOs, and faith-based groups collaborating to advance human trafficking awareness and prevention. There she coordinated sharing public information, community and business education programs. Teresa continues to provide pastoral support for trafficking victims.

Publications & Resources

Teresa’s opus includes books, articles, webinars, radio programming, workshops, and retreats. Her second book was been awarded the Mother Cabrini Cors Jesu award for promoting social justice in the practicum for clergy abuse. Her first book was recommended staff reading under Francis Cardinal George of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

All Teresa’s works are included in the Pontifical Commission’s Tutela Minorum as models for care throughout the Church Universal.

In 2014, Teresa was one of several clergy-abuse survivors who founded The Healing Voices Magazine. Some of her articles are included on this website now.

During its publication, The Healing Voices was read weekly throughout North America, Europe, and English-speaking regions around the world.