Breek de stilte; verzekeren

"A child who has been abused needs society to kneel before him or her and bend its ear to the whispers of his or her pain." - Charlene Smith
The insurance company called me the other day.It was time for the annual renewal of the church policy.
"I'd suggest," said my caller, "that you increase your liability coverage and give some further consideration to insurance for physical and sexual abuse."
"You're right," I said, "but it deeply saddens me that the church has to protect itself for fear its staff or congregants are charged with abuse."
"I understand," said our insurance rep, "but the reality is..."

Indeed, there is an alarming reality, an endemic problem within the global institution we refer to as the Church, a problem at times that seems so pervasive, a disease so dreadfully horrible that the once public perception of the Church as a paragon of virtue, and a model of all that is good and noble in society, appears but a distant memory.
Again and again, like some bad dream, the word "clergy" finds its way onto the front pages of our national newspapers, alongside it the words "sexual abuse."

The words should never be breathed or spoken in the same sentence, let alone side by side. The apostolic creeds we recite in the Church remind us that we are a holy universal Church, or should be, but by our conduct we have tragically maligned the name of Christ and invited the just and valid criticism of society that hypocrisy fills our ranks from the top brass to the ordinary man or woman in the pew.

I cannot imagine the unspeakable horror of sexual abuse. I simply cannot conceive of the trauma to the soul, the devastation to the human spirit, the disfiguration of the emotions.
I have never walked in the shoes of a young girl or boy whose innocence has been violated, whose sacred trust in the Almighty and His representatives has been betrayed with a kiss of death, I've never been there.

I remember in my first year of high school, two senior boys grabbing me in a corridor, pulling down my trousers and underwear then laughing hysterically.

never ever told anyone about that for years. That momentary exposure of my nakedness before their laughing eyes was a humiliating assault that left a wound, and crushed the spirit of a rather naive mid-pubescent kid.
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