By Teresa Pitt Green
SPIRIT FIRE
Resources
BOOKS
Veronica’s Veil: A Christ-Centered Guide to Integrating Faith with Recovery for Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy, with Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Spirit Fire, 2024, $6.99
First Steps: Overcoming Early Obstacles to Recovery from Abuse
Spirit Fire, 2024, $6.99
Top Topics: Revisiting Common Themes in Trauma Recovery with a Faith Perspective
Spirit Fire, 2024, $5.99
Turning Points: Facing Decisive Junctures in Recovery from Abuse
Spirit Fire, 2024, $5.99
Reconciliation with Faith: Cultivating a Heart at Peace with a Wounding Church
Spirit Fire, 2024, $5.99
Restoring Sanctuary: A Chronicle of Helpers on the Way Home
Spirit Fire, 2010, 2024, $14.99
The Serenity Prayer: A Practical Discipline for Prayerful Living
Spirit Fire, July 2024
One Degree of Separation: Reflections & Inspiration for Loved Ones of Adults Survivors of Abuse within the Catholic Church – and Beyond
Spirit Fire, June 2024, $9.99
A Survivor Miscellany: Practical Prompts to Improve Your Trauma-Informed Ministry
Spirit Fire, June 2024, $8.99
VIDEOS
SUBSCRIBE
Teresa Pitt Green
Teresa Pitt Green
A Brief History of Sexual Abuse in the Church (Rossetti)
Safeguarding in the Church Universal (Zollner)
What is the Centre for Child Protection?
A Prayerful, Peaceful Beginning
ONLINE ARTICLES
Intervention for My Generation: Digital Work Opportunities
Digital opportunities for survivors of abuse can be helpful, as flexible work schedules can ease some stress that often triggers difficult emotional states. This think piece speaks to employers and those who should embrace the digital age and its opportunities.
Many Wounds, One Savior
The Church bears the wounds of all survivors of abuse within the Church–not only in moral terms, of course, but in a way that, also, deserves awareness, attention and care. This is yet another way that faith stories, shared among us, become testimonies as a community to the Lord’s favor and grace–and how the Good News is needed by all.
(First published in Orthodoxy in Dialogue, Jan 17, 2018 – Republished in The Healing Voices Magazine, Jan 24, 2018)
Making Distinctions after the Trauma of Child Sexual Abuse
We unlearn what abusers teach, using lies to groom us and authority to confuse us enough to believe the lies. We learn that all surrender is not annihilation and that, unlike the abuser who manipulates and destroys free choice, the Lord will permit us to choose whether to take the next step in healing over and over and over again.
(First published in Orthodoxy in Dialogue, Feb 4, 2018)
DOWNLOADABLE ARTICLES
A Different Kind of Bishop
Ibid. (approx. 2008). A brief snapshot of a bishop’s presence in a survivor’s early exploration of a deeper commitment to faith.
Survivor Reflection: Safe, Alone in a Chapel
Ibid. (approx. August 2009). A reflection on the unexpected experience of feeling safe in a Catholic chapel during a retreat for survivors.
Homecoming
The Arlington Herald (approx. June 2010). Reprinted insidecatholic.com and catholicity.com. What is the homecoming like? Why? How? After so much pain, abandonment and betrayal?
Making Distinctions
Adapted from first pub in) Healing, Learning and Growing (Archdiocese of Chicago newsletter) 1, no 4 (November 2011). MOST REPRINTED ARTICLE: The process of healing from clergy abuse is a process of making distinctions where we had seen none; between surrender and annihilation, between priest and predator.
Good Friday for Survivors of Abuse
Posted on Arlington Diocese Victim Assistance Website in Spanish and English. April 31, 2012.
Blessed
Catholic Social Workers National Association newsletter (February 2014).
For social workers, a reflection about being able to integrate faith with recovery from abuse.
Why Consider Returning to a Faith that Betrayed Us?
Healing, Learning and Growing (Archdiocese of Chicago newsletter) 4, no 2 (November 2014).
A gentle suggestion why returning to Catholicism is important for survivors — and those whom they love, also known as a invitation to a mature faith rich because of, not despite, suffering.
My Conversion Story
Our Sunday Visitor (March 2015). In a series of stories about conversion, my story of returning to the faith was included.
Open Letter to Victim Assistance Coordinators
Sent on November 2015. A note of gratitude and encouragement in the season of Advent.
First Encounter: What Do Liberated Victims First Encounter in Victim Services?
The Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force Newsletter (June 15, 2017). Scenarios for how freed victims of human trafficking in Northern Virginia are processed with compassion, including interviews with two professionals on the front lines of care
Strength-Based Leaders: An Affirming and Successful Approach for Supporting Victims’ Recovery and New Life
Introduction to the strength-based approach currently being used in the majority of human-trafficking victims’ programs and now gaining footing in treatment and care for all other victims of abuse or violence as children or adults.
First published in the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force newsletter, Aug 15, 2017