Responding to the Death of Pope Francis—While Remaining Focused on Survivors

When I learned of Pope Francis's death on Monday morning, my first reaction was shock. Of course we knew he had been very ill, but he seemed to have turned a corner. As I scanned the news articles, my next thought was for abuse survivors around the world, especially those who are part of the Awake community.

The pope’s death has stirred strong feelings for some survivors.

Any time the Catholic Church is in the headlines—whether it’s for reasons related to abuse or any other topic—there’s a host of challenges for those who have experienced abuse by Catholic leaders. Survivors tell us that it’s very difficult to be bombarded by triggers when they check the news, scroll social media, or even engage in casual conversation. The death of the pope is especially complicated in this regard, and we started hearing right away from survivors who were experiencing strong reactions of all kinds.

I know that some people in the Awake community greatly admired Pope Francis and his leadership, while others have more mixed or negative feelings about the way he addressed abuse. At a moment like this, I think there’s a temptation to think in black and white—to make Pope Francis simply a hero or a villain. But the truth is more complex. In fact, Religion News Service invited me to write an op-ed evaluating Pope Francis’s mixed record on addressing abuse. If you’re interested, you can read that piece here.

In the coming weeks, we may put together an Awake blog post sharing thoughts from a variety of survivors. I realize that might have been nice to have this week, but we wanted to wait; it doesn’t seem fair to ask people to commit their immediate reactions to publication. As an organization, we’ve always been more interested in thoughtful reflection than quick takes, and we’re sticking with that approach here.

Because Awake is a survivor-centered organization, we’re focusing first on how this development impacts the survivors in our community. As soon as we heard the news, we started a discussion on our online survivors’ forum, The Well, and we hosted a drop-in Survivor Circle last night for anyone who wanted to discuss and process together. I’m deeply grateful that we have the ability to respond quickly and provide extra care in moments like this.

As we support and pray for the survivors in our community, we also pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, and for the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in the days and weeks to come.


—Sara Larson, Executive Director

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