Liturgy of Lamentation, December 1, 2007, Survivor Testimony

Your testimony during the lamentation liturgy made real and poignant what we know about the reality of the wounded but can easily lose connection with in the debate about the sexual abuse crisis. Thank you for sharing your woundedness with us and bringing us back to the center of our motivation.

from "Claire" . . . I was one of the survivors of clergy sexual abuse who spoke at the Liturgy of Lament last Saturday. I will send my poem named The Eye of the Storm to you later from our other computer. I wrote this in August 2007r--I brought my story of abuse to the diocese of Arlington in May..I was abused as a 24 year old--24 years ago

from "Becky" . . . I was abused by Father Reinecke in Alexandria,VA in the late 60’s. I repressed all memories of my abuse until 23 months ago. It seems like I have told everybody my story but in reality I have only told my family, the people in my support groups and a couple of close friends. I have never testified in front of a committee or spoken to the press about my abuse. I stand up here feeling much like the 9 year old I once was, terrified and ashamed. Each statement I am going to share is like individual wound that needs to heal. I hope by exposing these wounds to you, a group of people who will listen with understanding and compassion that they will be begin to heal and I will feel less ashamed. Thank you for listening. I Lament

from "Jim" . . . Two months ago I went to Old Town Alexandria to get information on a Photography Course I had seen advertised on the internet. I had purchased a really nice camera four months prior and figured I had better take a course to figure out how to use it!
After getting the course information I went a few blocks further down the street and came to a little park along the river. I pulled out the camera and took a few “practice” shots. They actually came out pretty good – one is pictured here.
As we were preparing for today’s Liturgy of Lamentation I was asked to speak. Rather than simply “tell my story” again – which most people have heard several times, I tried to come up with something else, some other way of getting the message across of what happens to a person when they are abused by a priest. As I searched my resources I came across the pictures I had recently taken. This one picture literally jumped off the page at me. That was it – I knew not only what I wanted to say, but how to demonstrate it as well. Awaiting the Storm .