Articles
For Survivors - Families - Friends - Ministers - Educators - Journalists - Clinicians - Healthcare Professionals - Religious - Clergy - Leaders
A selection of articles about integrating Catholic faith with recovery from abuse, trauma, violence
Categories
Teresa's Overview of Abuse, Healing & Faith
Inspiration for Survivors and Their Loved Ones
Spirit Fire Testimonies After McCarrick
International Connections
Survivor Round Table Discussions
Transfer of articles to this new site is still underway. See a title of interest? Just ask. We'll send you a copy.
Share Freely
Feel free to print out for copies for distribution and discussion in educational, retreat, recovery, and parish setting, provided you do retain the copyright notice already included. Bulletin or parish inserts or reprints are encouraged and free.
Republication is welcome and at no charge. Please contact Teresa for formal permission or referral to copyright owners.Turnaround usually within a day.
THV
"THV" in this resource list refers to The Healing Voices, a magazine which ran from 2014 into 2019 co-founded with several clergy-abuse survivors and edited by Teresa.
Reprinted hundreds of times for workshops and discussion groups
One way to approach a safe process when healing from clergy abuse is to sort through the confusion and perversions of abuse by making distinctions where there had been none, such as between surrender and annihilation, humility and humiliation, priest and predator. (Adapted after published Healing, Learning and Growing/Archdiocese of Chicago newsletter Nov 2011).
Spirit Fire Checklist of Do's and Don'ts in Pastoral Care
Pastoral ministries working with survivors of abuse, trauma, and violence are most effective when they develop a heightened awareness about their attitudes, biases, and reactions to the suffering of others using this checklist.
A call and inspiration for all Catholics to restore safety in the sanctuary
Clergy Abuse: Priests Are the Antidote
The unique role played by priests in the healing process of survivors of clergy and other sexual abuse (OSV News, May 17, 2024)
Clergy Abuse: You Are the Antidote
The important role lay people play for everyone who has been wounded by clergy abuse—victims, their families, parishes, clergy, and leaders (OSV News, May 16, 2024)
The hope and sacred opportunity for all Catholics to confront biases and restore a holy sanctuary following clergy abuse scandals (OSV News, May 15, 2024)
A quick study in understanding the wounds of abuse by clergy and healing in a faith setting
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)
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)
When Someone You Love is Sexually Abused
For every survivor of abuse or trauma, there is a network of people who feel the impact by one or more degree of separation. What is some of the thinking in current literature and practice that can begin to offer insights into the hardly noticed burden of those in relation to survivors? (First published in Orthodoxy in Dialogue, March 15, 2018)
A look at sexual abusers challenges us to understand abuse in order to protect against it and, also, appreciate what, by contrast, priests are in the life of the Church and in our own lives. (Orthodoxy in Dialogue, June 18, 2018)
A few red flags and tips for what to avoid
Saints and Healing from Abuse: When Help Doesn't Help
Reviewing publications that promote patron saints for victims of abuse, a red flag for needed precautions is raised (THV, May 10, 2018, revised 2025)
Spirit Fire Checklist of Do's and Don'ts in Pastoral Care
Pastoral ministries working with survivors of abuse, trauma, and violence are most effective when they develop a heightened awareness about their attitudes, biases, and reactions to the suffering of others using this checklist. (Most widely used publication, around since 2014)
Selected articles favored by survivors and their family members and friends, with important insights for others. These articles, previously published in The Healing Voices Magazine are being added over the coming months. Curious before one is posted here? Just ask!
Grieving and Forgiving
(THV, Oct 26, 2018)
Forgiveness Versus Enabling
(THV, Oct 15, 2018)
Unique Gifts Survivors Offer Fellow Catholics
(THV, Sept 11, 2018)
Unlearning What We Learned from Liars
(THV, Sept 4, 2018)
Integrity Lost to Clergy Abuse
(With Michael D. Hoffman, THV, Aug 2, 2018)
Betrayal
(THV, June 30, 2018)
Other Voices, New Voices
(THV, April 17, 2018)
Exercise Your Muscle Memory
What muscle memory is and how it plays a pivotal role in successful therapy and recovery from child abuse of any kind – as well as trauma from violence and post-traumatic stress. (THV, Nov 2016)
McGee the Dog : How a Homeless Dog Rescued Me from My Triggers
How caring for a feral dog in need was the most effective way to learn about how to manage my own trigger-memories. (THV, Sept 2016)
Faith in Primary Colors: Hard-Won Wisdom and Faith Insights
Struggles in recovery and with adult life in the aftermath of child abuse are greatly aided by Scripture, which encompasses the life-and-death choices many people of faith have not yet encountered.
Faith: Strong Footing for Rough Going
It’s a rough world out there, indeed, a Valley of Tears. Faith is what will get you through, even during darkest hours related to abuse. (THV, May 2016)
For certain seasons that are particularly difficult
Good Friday for Survivors of Abuse
Reflection on Good Friday service and healing from abuse. (Arlington Diocese Victim Assistance Website in Spanish/English. April 2012)
Light in Darkness: On Challenge of Christmas and Grief
A different look at the idea, however cliche it may seem in the sometimes-despair of holidays, that in our darkness God is Light. (THV, Dec 2016)
The challenges and blessings in prayer. Links will be added to all articles shown with time. See one you'd like to read? Just ask!
Impossible Prayer
Survivors and family members grieving in the wake of child sexual abuse often don’t notice their bond with God. (Published in The Healing Voices, July 2017)
Rosary Beads
Reasons for keeping a rosary in your pocket, even if you don’t pray the rosary (yet). (THV, May 2017)
The Way: Healing Retreat for Survivors of Abuse
A review of a three-day retreat program developed by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and offered by its Victim Assistance Coordinator for survivors from around the country. (Part of a series of critiques of the few retreat programs for survivors and family members.) (Published in The Healing Voices, March 2017)
A selection of retreats for survivors and family members
In addition to themes in other selected articles here, certain issues are particularly important for anyone offering pastoral care
Forgiveness: Resources for Reflection
(THV, July 24, 2018)
A Ministry for Mental Illness
(THV, July 10, 2018)
Survivors Offering Ministries to Others
(THV, July 8, 2018)
Saints and Abuse
(THV, May 20, 2018)
Peer Support for Secondary Victims
(THV, April 5, 2018)
Mutual Healing in Dialogue
We were wounded in relationships, and must heal in relationships, both sides of the dialogue — survivors and family members on one side, and the Church on the other. For this, we need each other. (Published in The Healing Voices, March 2017)
Our Beginning
A reflection on Eliot's poem, Little Gidding, making distinctions between therapeutic recovery with and without a strong faith element (THV, Oct 2017)
Intro to the strength-based approach to trauma based on services to human-trafficking victims (First published in the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force newsletter, Aug 15, 2017)
In a series about conversion, Teresa’s story of returning to the Catholic faith was included. (Our Sunday Visitor, Mar 2015)
Parishes can bring child protection and survivor healing to the grassroots level
What Parishes Can Do Now
(THV, Sept 9, 2018)
Plan Your Pinwheel for Prevention Event Now
(THV, Aug 14, 2018)
Saints and Abuse
(THV, May 20, 2018)
Pinwheels
What do pinwheels, which are symbols of child protection and child-abuse prevention, have to do with child protection and child-abuse prevention? Don’t they seem oxymoronic? (THV, March 2017)
Outreach to survivors of clergy abuse began in the U.S., in 2002, with certain programs and impact documented here
Safe Environments Beyond Where Church Programs Reach
(THV, Aug 4, 2018)
Child Protection: An Amends to Victims
(Published in Virtus Learning Portal, Oct 8, 2018)
The Way: Healing Retreat for Survivors of Abuse
A review of a three-day retreat program developed by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and offered by its Victim Assistance Coordinator for survivors from around the country. (THV, March 2017)
What was it like to make that first call to the Victim Assistance program in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia? It wasn’t pretty. (THV, Feb 2017)
Child Protection: First Step in Reconciliation
Survivors of clergy abuse need to know the Church is serious about protecting children and young people before being comfortable exploring a reconciled relationship is even possible. In that the Church in the United States has made big strides. (THV, April 2016)
Open Letter to Victim Assistance Coordinators
A note of gratitude and encouragement in the season of Advent. (Distributed Nov 2015)
In a series about conversion, Teresa’s story of returning to the Catholic faith was included. (Our Sunday Visitor, Mar 2015)
Why Consider Returning to a Faith that Betrayed Us?
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. (Healing, Learning and Growing/Archdiocese of Chicago newsletter, Nov 2014)
For social workers, a reflection about being able to integrate faith with recovery from abuse. (Catholic Social Workers National Association newsletter, Feb 2014)
What is it like to come home to the Catholic Church after suffering sexual and other abuse by clergy? (The Arlington Catholic Herald, June 2010. Reprinted broadly, including insidecatholic.com and catholicdity.com)
Survivor Reflection: Safe, Alone in a Chapel
A reflection on the unexpected experience of feeling safe in a Catholic chapel during a retreat for survivors. (The Arlington Catholic Herald, Aug 2009)
A brief snapshot of a bishop’s presence in a survivor’s early exploration of a deeper commitment to faith. (The Arlington Catholic Herald, 2008)
First Year: A Survivor in Arlington Diocese
Text/Article Needed (The Arlington Catholic Herald, 2004)
After the Summer of McCarrick revelations, Spirit Fire founders did not shy away from addressing the U.S. Bishops
Teresa's participation in Church initiatives beyond the U.S. have helped bring focus on secondary victims and the role of faith in healing
The First Pontifical Commission Summit on Pastoral Care for Survivors
Opening Speech
Eyes on God: Surviving the Vatican Summit
(THV, February 2019 Issue)
Changing Hearts: The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors
Why the pace of change in a massive institution doesn’t constrain us from the call, as wounded healers., to offer healing and reconciliation here and now, in relationships with family, priests, sisters, deacons and all Catholics. (THV, May 2016)
Books by survivors reviewed
Saints and Healing from Abuse: When Help Doesn't Help
Review of Dawn Eden's My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Abuse with the Help of the Saints (THV, May 10, 2018, revised 2025)
A review of the book Acts of Recovery: The Story of One Man’s Journey Toward Healing from Sexual Abuse by a Priest, by Michael D. Hoffman, which focuses on themes of resilience and involvement in Church as a wounded healer. (THV, Feb 2017)
Lamp, Lightpost, Ladder
A review of the book Shrinking the Monster: Healing the Wounds of Our Abuse, by Norbert Krapf, with a focus on how this work chronicles the author’s journey remembering abuse while writing a book of poems–and how creativity is often a Spirit-infused way through the darkness. (THV, Dec 2016)
Round Table discussions among many original contributors to The Healing Voices Magazine, co-founded and edited by Teresa, revealed a diverse approach to abuse, recovery, faith, and the Church
The Resignation of Marie Collins
Co-founders and contributors to The Healing Voices Magazine respond to the resignation of Marie Collins. (Published in The Healing Voices, March 2017)
Fondest Childhood Memories at Christmas
Co-founders of The Healing Voices Magazine reflect on memories of Christmas that add range to difficult childhood memories, which are a constantly evolving mix and unique to each survivor. (THV, Dec 2016)
How We Have Remained Catholic
Co-founders of The Healing Voices Magazine share why and how they remained Catholic (THV, July 2016)
Spotlight, the Film
Co-founders of The Healing Voices Magazine share reflections on the release of the movie Spotlight. (THV, Mar 2016)