{"id":30598,"date":"2016-11-14T11:32:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T16:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=30598"},"modified":"2016-11-15T15:02:43","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T20:02:43","slug":"symposium-lecture-catholic-victims-advocate-tom-doyle-focuses-institutional-harms-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/symposium-lecture-catholic-victims-advocate-tom-doyle-focuses-institutional-harms-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Symposium and lecture by Catholic victims advocate Tom Doyle focuses on institutional harms and healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capping a month-long series of events around the topic of healthy sexuality and sexual violence, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) welcomed Father Tom Doyle, a Roman Catholic sexual abuse victim advocate, to campus Monday, Nov. 7. Doyle, a priest who has worked with abuse victims for more than three decades, was the keynote speaker and panel presenter for a symposium for EMU faculty and staff on institutional harms and healing in response to sexual violence. He also gave an evening lecture, open to the public, on the spiritual impact of sexual abuse in religious contexts, and gave a sermon at an Eastern Mennonite Seminary worship service.<\/p>\n

The symposium and public lecture were organized and facilitated by Professor Carolyn Stauffer<\/a> as part of her multi-year \u201cSilent Violence\u201d project. Her research, which began in 2015<\/a> with a grant from The JustPax Fund<\/a>, has focused on how abused individuals in marginalized communities employ resilient strategies to survive, endure and sometimes escape their situations.<\/p>\n

While the first year of the project focused on surfacing individual stories and the second year on community services, the third year has emphasized the role of institutions. In March 2016, Stauffer organized a community education forum<\/a> with both preventative goals and healing through arts-based approaches. One of Stauffer\u2019s research questions, which widened the investigative scope to communities and institutions, was \u201cHow are our ideologies or institutions complicit?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Tom Doyle \u2014 Catholic leader, survivors\u2019 advocate, priest, canon, lawyer, addictions therapist, and long-time supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims \u2014 addressed three audiences during his Nov. 11-12 visit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cInstitutions frequently perpetuate injury to survivors by means of denial and silence,\u201d says Stauffer.\u00a0 \u201cMy hope is that institutions such as EMU can become models of accountability and support in instances of sexual harms. This would substantiate our commitment to non-violence in the most core parts of our life as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other campus events in October and November included the chapel Sexuality Series <\/a>and Take Back the Night events (coverage forthcoming). The campus-wide collaborative effort, said Interim President Lee Snyder, was prepared to \u201chelp us as a community and as individuals \u2018grow our capacity to respond to sexual violence in just and transformative ways\u2019\u201d [as articulated by the planners].<\/p>\n

‘Learn from our mistakes’<\/h3>\n

In both presentations, Doyle urged listeners \u201cto learn from the horrific mistakes other denominations have made, especially the ones the Catholic Church has made.\u201d He has been involved in the issue since it first surfaced to the public in 1984. While a diplomatic officer at the Vatican Embassy in Washington D.C., he was assigned administrative duties to handle the case involving a Louisiana priest.<\/p>\n

His experience of meeting a young victim began a 32-year journey of victim advocacy that has called his religious beliefs into question at times and caused him to reinvent his own spirituality. Because of his experiences, Doyle prefers not to use a priestly title or wear clerical clothing. He has been a frequent speaker at Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) functions, and in his lecture, referenced the Anabaptist-Mennonite chapter, SNAP Menno<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The biggest mistake of the leadership of the Catholic Church, Doyle said, was the attempt to cover up and contain the issue, and to \u201crefuse to treat the victims as Christ would have treated them,\u201d Doyle said. The church is not a building or a faceless entity, but rather, \u201cthe people, the people of God,\u201d and because of this importance, leaders must prioritize the welfare of the victims over the image and preservation of the institution. \u201cTake the risk. We\u2019re Christians. Do what you think Christ might do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panel addresses aspects of institutional involvement<\/h3>\n

In the three-hour morning session for faculty and staff, Doyle\u2019s keynote address was followed by a panel presentation facilitated by Stauffer and Professor David Brubaker<\/a> and including:<\/p>\n