Still Spiritual after Trauma

When a person is sexually abused they suffer physically, emotionally, and psychologically. When the offender is a priest, minister or rabbi, the victim also suffers spiritually. A religious leader is someone to confide in, someone who you might put your deepest trust in. Unfortunately, just like being a scout leader or teacher, a pedophile might lean towards a spiritual leadership position precisely because it gains access to trust, and often children.

A recent news report of a letter that surfaced indicating a cover up by the Catholic Church has raised the issue again of clergy related child sexual abuse; and the ramifications of how that affects someone’s spirituality.

Fred Bodimer of KMOX/CBS reports,

“This may be the most devastating disclosure yet about the Vatican’s complicity in child sex crimes and cover-ups,” said SNAP’s executive director, David Clohessy of St. Louis.

David was contacted because of his work with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. When he was asked by Examiner.com about the spiritual side of the victims of clergy pedophiles he responded:

“Almost every victim of clergy sexual abuse - whether as a child or as an adult - struggles with spirituality at some point. A minority of them eventually find or restore some sort of faith life, but usually only after years of grappling and searching and working hard to recovery from the betrayal in and out of therapy.

Often clergy sex abuse victims change denominations and gravitate toward faith groups that are less rigid, hierarchical, and authoritarian. A smaller group moves in the opposite direction, and finds comfort and solace in more tightly structured faith groups.

But for the overwhelming majority of those assaulted by clergy, authentic spirituality is either impossible or possible only after long periods of inner doubt and conflict.”

Tim Fischer is a St. Louis victim/survivor of clergy child abuse and has guts enough to have his story up on the SNAP websitehttp://www.snapnetwork.org/, and his own website called The Altered Boy.http://http://www.timfischer1.com He was kind enough to tell us about his spiritual ups and downs, going from good catholic boy to (understandably) atheist, rejecting all the seeming hypocrisy in religion. And then after he saw an ultra-sound of his child, he reconnected with his belief in a higher power.

His perspective may be of help to other survivors, or even just those in trying times. He said, “Just because something bad happened to me doesn’t mean I’m going to throw in the towel with God.” He also said that the Jews during the holocaust give him inspiration. “The fact that so many of them right there in the concentration camps, seeing the horror of the Nazis day in and day out, still held onto their faith in God.”

Although no longer a Catholic, Tim is now a regular church goer.