Awake’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2024
The start of the new year offers a good moment to reflect on all the blog posts we published in 2024, to determine which posts resonated most for our readers. Here we count down through our 10 most popular blog posts of the year, ending with our most popular posts.
10. 6 Tips for Priests: How to Address Abuse in a Homily
In this blog post, Awake Executive Director Sara Larson explains that abuse survivors often say they wish priests would speak openly about the problem of church abuse, especially in homilies. Larson offers advice on how to speak about abuse in sensitive ways, based on recommendations from survivors. These include tips such as “Start with Humility” and “Speak from the Heart.”
“Survivor” was the most popular term on our survey.
9. Victim? Survivor? Coper? Thriver? Which Name is Better After Abuse?
In the 2024 version of Awake’s annual survivor survey, we asked people who have experienced abuse in the Catholic Church which terms they prefer to use to identify themselves. No one term worked for everyone, but “victim,” “victim-survivor,” and “survivor” were common choices, and respondents shared powerful reasons why they prefer certain terms over others. This June blog post explores the survey results.
8. “Without Saying a Word, You Are Safe and Understood:” Reflections from Awake’s Second Annual Survivor Retreat
Awake held its second retreat for abuse survivors in July. In this post written after the retreat, Sara Larson reflects on the gifts of this weekend gathering, held at a beautiful retreat center in West Bend, Wisconsin.
Canon lawyer Andrew Bartell joined Awake’s board in April 2024.
Our blog readers are always eager to read about the volunteers who choose to share their gifts with our community. In April, Awake welcomed several new members to our Board of Directors, including people who bring valuable understanding of the twin crises of sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church. In this post we shared profiles of the new directors and extended heartfelt thanks to their predecessors, including Elizabeth Zimmer, who faithfully served as board president in Awake’s earliest days.
6. What Is DARVO? Why Learning More Could Lead to a Safer Church
This explainer describes DARVO, a set of tactics often used by perpetrators who are publicly accused of sexual abuse. This acronym stands for “deny, attack, reverse victim and offender,” and research shows that this approach creates confusion and makes abuse victims seem less believable. But learning about DARVO and sharing this information with others may reduce the power of these techniques.
5. What Is Institutional Betrayal? And How Does It Relate to Church Abuse?
For this post, we interviewed Lori Daniels, associate professor of social work at Hawai’i Pacific University, who is currently writing a book about healing from institutional betrayal. She describes the pain of institutional trauma, when an institution that a person depends on for survival—say their Church or employer—violates their trust. Here Daniels shares information about healing from betrayal trauma, and offers a message for people who have suffered this type of wound.
Natalie Pucillo in Rome
Here Natalie Pucillo describes the experience of traveling to Rome during the Synod on Synodality. “I was equally thrilled and apprehensive to travel to Rome,” she shares at the start of her moving reflection. “As a survivor of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, I was not sure what this journey would feel like.”
3. How Can We Make Churches More Trauma Informed? Start with These Six Principles
One of our goals at Awake is to help make the Catholic Church more knowledgeable about trauma, and more responsive to people carrying such wounds. In this important post, Pete Singer, the executive director of GRACE, or Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, shares his thoughts about what a trauma-informed church might look like.
2. The Top 10 Questions We Hear About Awake
Early in 2024, Awake introduced itself as a national organization. We also launched a new logo and redesigned website. Given that many people were learning about Awake for the first time, we wrote this post covering some of the most commonly asked questions about our organization, such as “Who funds Awake?” and “Is Awake a conservative or liberal organization?”
1. Survivor Stories
Amy Pearce shared her story in December.
Of all the posts we published in 2024, readers were most enthusiastic about our Survivor Stories series. These monthly posts give people in the Awake community who have been sexually abused in the Church a chance to describe their journey and share insights.
We are honored that they trust us with these sacred stories. We’re also grateful for the hundreds of community members who read survivors’ stories and take the time to respond with words of encouragement and support. All of the Survivor Stories that have appeared on the blog are currently available on this page of the Awake website.
As we begin the new year, we invite you to keep reading; we’re working on more great content for the months ahead. Please sign up here and click the final checkbox to receive all of our new blog posts in your inbox!
Awake is community that strives to be compassionate, survivor-centered, faithful, welcoming, humble, courageous, and hopeful. We thank you for choosing your words with care when commenting, and we reserve the right to remove comments that are inappropriate or hurtful.
