Abuse crises response stresses caring, knowledge

Glenn Rutherford, Record Assistant Editor
More than 12,500 people in Archdiocese of Louisville have taken part in workshops and training that are at the heart of the response to sexual abuse crisis

The Record -People all across the Archdiocese of Louisville were emotional when news of the clergy sexual abuse crisis broke in the spring of 2002.

Those emotions and responses were disparate and disconcerting. People were hurt, angry, confused, concerned and bewildered. Long-standing assumptions about the nature of church, of Catholic communities and schools, were challenged and suddenly unreconciled, like locks without keys.

But from that disharmony and confusion — and away from the glare of television newscast floodlights and the voice recorders of newspaper reporters — a more positive and promising response developed.

In the wake of the crisis, the Archdiocese launched its Safe Environment Program, which held its first workshop in October 2003. In the years since, the program has educated more than 12,500 people in the archdiocese about the nature of sexual abuse, especially child sexual abuse.

The program’s workshops provide ways to recognize disturbing trends toward inappropriate behavior — such as the “grooming” of potential young victims by abusers. And they provide answers for what to do, what steps to take and whom to contact when sexual abuse is occurring or suspected.

The program, which was developed with the help of the local Center for Women and Families, was an attempt to show that the archdiocese “can blanket children with safety, with caring adults, something that’s fundamental to our identity as a Catholic community,” said Dr. Thomas Robbins.

Robbins serves as director of counseling and safe and drug free schools for the archdiocese. He is also coordinator of the Safe Environment program — in essence, the archdiocese’s contact person for information, guidance and response to sexual abuse.

When news of the abuse crisis broke, Robbins said, the archdiocese found itself swaddled in naiveté about the issue.

“We really were kind of naive about this,” he explained. “But then the scandal occurred, and once we recognized our problems, we went all out to correct things. We were determined to cover all areas where children learn and play.”

What’s really admirable about the effort, he added, is “the acknowledgment of this archdiocese that we can do and must do better.”

“We said, what we’re going to do is take this acknowledgment and right this wrong,” Robbins said.

The Safe Environment Program has held, so far, 121 workshops, and they continue on a regular basis, said Dr. Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrative officer for the archdiocese.

The program is required for every person in the archdiocese who has contact in any way with children. It applies to clergy, teachers, coaches, volunteers, youth ministers, cafeteria workers — anyone in the archdiocese who sees, is around or works with young people.

“As of the end of March, 12,651 people have participated in the workshops in the archdiocese,” Reynolds noted. “That, combined with the work done in other dioceses in Kentucky, has caused people to suggest to me that this is the largest single education and prevention initiative in the state of Kentucky.”

Just since the beginning of the fiscal year last July, the archdiocese has held 36 workshops for 2,100 people, he added. Everyone who goes through the training program receives a copy of “Restoring Trust: The Sexual Abuse Policies of the Archdiocese of Louisville.” That booklet not only defines terms and outlines reporting and investigative procedures, it also provides a host of other information — assistance for victims, how to bring a complaint and a list of telephone numbers for abuse reporting contacts.

By the middle of 2004, the archdiocese also had in place about 20 individuals who, as a result of special training they received, are qualified to lead workshops on Safe Environment Programs, Reynolds said.

“Any time any parish or school has a need, we’re able to provide training and trainers to conduct local Safe Environment workshops,” he added.

The archdiocese’s Safe Environment efforts have become something of a template for other agencies and organizations around the country.

“We’ve shared our model with others,” the chancellor said. “And there is a group of people who do Safe Environment workshops and other responses to the clergy sexual abuse crisis around the country — Safe Environment coordinators — who meet regularly. There are folks who oversee the initiatives in various dioceses, my counterparts, who meet regularly, too. I attended just last month a meeting in Kansas City where 20 dioceses (that) are involved in just what we’re doing were represented.”

The point is, the response to the abuse crisis — the Safe Environment program and other archdiocesan efforts — is “on our mind every day,” Reynolds noted.

“We’ve put in place in all Catholic schools a curriculum on Safe Environment,” he explained, “so children can be educated throughout their childhood about abuse-related issues.”

That curriculum has taken the common messages given to children in the past — such as “never get into a car with strangers” — and expanded it to include topics surrounding appropriate touching, how to tell someone when you’re feeling uncomfortable, and how to talk to adults when something has happened that makes the young person feel uncertain and uneasy.

Robbins refers to part of that curriculum as examining and emphasizing the “uh-oh” feelings that children — and some adults — have when they realize that a situation is uncomfortable or wrong.

“In the old days we simply told a child to stay away from people who made them feel uneasy,” Robbins said. “But that was then. Now we train children to recognize and trust that ‘uh-oh’ feeling, even if it’s not part of the ‘grooming’ process.”

Experts in sexual abuse recognition and treatment say that abusers often “groom” their victims over time, luring them into potentially sexual situations by gaining their trust slowly and painstakingly.

“As a result of our program, we’ve had a number of cases where trained people have interrupted the grooming process or halted inappropriate contact,” Robbins said.

The program has also created “tellable” adults — people children can turn when they feel harmed or threatened.

“Creating a safe environment for children is what we’re all about as a Catholic community,” said Robbins. “Anthropologists universally have accepted the notion that the health of a society or culture can be determined by the health of its young people, by the protection and care they receive from the adults. A community that cares for its young is a healthy community or culture.”

Part of what the program is saying to Catholics throughout the archdiocese, Robbins said, is that we each have a responsibility to make certain our children and vulnerable adults are safe.

“We have to be one in caring for our children,” he said. “It’s who we are as a community. We are the ones who have responsibility as a Catholic community to love and care for and protect our children. We’re not blaming anyone for the shortcomings of the past, but we’re holding everyone accountable for the future.”

The archdiocese “is not going to be naive anymore,” Robbins said.

“Laws are in place; children and adults are being educated. We’re making sure that our communities are caring communities, and caring communities are beautiful places. A Catholic community is beautiful — it’s the safest place to raise children.”

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