Helping Survivors of Sexual Abuse — Pastoral–Psychological Aspects and Guidelines

Abstract

In the featured article Helping Survivors of Sexual Abuse, the author, Antun Volenik, discusses childhood sexual abuse and sexual abuse of minors (pedophilia, ephebophilia, incest) in Western society and suggests possible pastoral responses and initiatives by the Catholic Church with regard to this serious matter. The article demonstrates that, while the great majority of victims are adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, they have been less represented in the media by far than other groups. These individuals are suffering, therapeutically speaking ’here–and–now’, the consequences of abuse which took place in the past, therapeutically referred to as ’there–and–then’. The article cites forms of prevention and exposing of child sexual abuse — all that is being done today for the protection of children. Furthermore, it discusses theories and historical facts on the background and causes of childhood sexual abuse, but also gives a broader view of the phenomenon and its consequences in the child’s later psychosomatic development. Finally, the author puts forward two specific initiatives for the formation of pastoral workers with regard to prevention, reporting of abuse and working with abused children, namely, 1) The Centre for Child Protection (CCP) — of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome, Italy) and 2) Grief to Grace (USA), a psychological–spiritual program directed primarily toward helping adult victims of sexual abuse.