Awake Blog
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Grappling with the Church’s History as a “Perpetrator Institution”
As Executive Director for Truth and Healing at Red Cloud School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Maka Black Elk holds a complex set of identities. He is a member of the Oglala-Sioux Tribe, the son and grandson of people who attended an Indian boarding school, and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse…
What Should I Do If Someone Tells Me They’ve Been Abused? The 5-Step VEEEL Method
This week we revisit this terrific advice from Deborah Rodriguez, MD, who spells out how to respond if someone discloses their abuse to you. It’s helpful for anyone who wants to respond to victim-survivors with healing compassion.
Courageous Conversation: Panel Reveals the Impact of Clergy Sexual Abuse on Families
Awake’s January Courageous Conversation provided an opportunity to listen to a mother, a husband, and a daughter of victim-survivors of abuse. The conversation “Family Matters: How Abuse Wounds the Loved Ones of Victim-Survivors,” featured…
Esther Harber
“That profound understanding that I am not alone takes a great deal of the shame away. ”
Awake’s Top Blog Posts of 2022
As we turn the page on a new year, we at Awake value the chance to look back over the last 12 months to see which posts were read most by the Awake community. This data reveals a…
Awake Announces Newly Expanded Survivor Advisory Panel
Listening to survivors has always been a priority for Awake Milwaukee.
In our earliest days, before we had even chosen the name “Awake,” we gathered in Sara and Mike Larson’s living room in Milwaukee to listen to a woman who was abused by a priest in grade school. This survivor described her hard work to heal and the pain she experienced as an adult, when she faced legalistic Church leaders in her efforts to report her abuser, who remained in ministry. Listening to her was a powerful experience, reinforcing our drive to learn more about the problems of abuse and cover-up in the Church, to work for transformation and healing, and to understand how we might walk with abuse survivors.
5 Things Every Priest Should Know About Sexual Abuse
Below I’ve compiled five things that I have learned since my wife and I began this journey several years ago, five things I wish every priest, seminarian, and tradition-loving Catholic like myself knew as well.
What Is Racism’s Role in the Abuse Crisis?
Last week Awake hosted a thought-provoking Courageous Conversation about the ways racism impacts the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The panel discussion, “Erased from the Narrative: The Role of Racism in the Abuse Crisis,” featured Fr. Bryan Massingale, a professor of ethics at Fordham University in New York and a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee; Maka Black Elk, executive director for Truth and Healing at Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota; and Jeremy Cruz, a professor of theology and religious studies at St. John’s University in New York. The recording of the conversation is available here.
Zac Zepeda
“Years of therapy and support groups have shown me that to heal I must talk about the abuse.”
Catholics Have Questions About Awake’s Next Step Recommendations. We Offer Answers.
We call the recommendations “Next Steps” because we see them as building on the progress the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has already made to assist survivors and address abuse by church leaders. But we believe more can and should be done. We developed these recommendations carefully over the course of two years by listening deeply to survivors and researching widely accepted best practices already implemented in other dioceses.
Deborah Rodriguez
“The greatest challenge I have had to endure as a survivor is shame. Because others forced me to keep silent about the abuse, I thought I was the one at fault, that I had done something wrong.”
Courageous Conversation: Abuse Survivors Share What They Want Catholics to Understand
Last week, Awake Milwaukee launched the third season of its popular Courageous Conversations series with “What I Want Catholics to Understand,” a panel discussion that featured five victim-survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church. A recording of the conversation is now available on Awake’s YouTube channel. Here we offer a summary of the main insights shared during the conversation, which was moderated by Sara Larson, executive director of Awake Milwaukee.
Part 4: Recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – Transparency and Accountability of Lay-Led Advisory Boards
This week we continue to explore Awake’s recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, developed to help our local church take next steps to address the evil of sexual abuse. Today we consider the third set of recommendations, which focus on unacceptable boundary violations that may set the stage for abuse. The complete set of recommendations for our archdiocese is available here.
Last week we shared part 1 and part 2 of the recommendations and explored why Awake is advocating for these changes. The recommendations come out of our efforts to learn from abuse survivors across the country and our careful research of best practices implemented in other U.S. dioceses.
Part 3: Recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – Proactive Steps to Prevent Abuse
This week we continue to explore Awake’s recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, developed to help our local church take next steps to address the evil of sexual abuse. Today we consider the third set of recommendations, which focus on unacceptable boundary violations that may set the stage for abuse. The complete set of recommendations for our archdiocese is available here.
Last week we shared part 1 and part 2 of the recommendations and explored why Awake is advocating for these changes. The recommendations come out of our efforts to learn from abuse survivors across the country and our careful research of best practices implemented in other U.S. dioceses.
Part 2: Awake’s Recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – Keeping Adults Safe from Abuse
Today we take a closer look at Awake’s second set of recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, related to the sexual abuse of adults. The complete set of recommendations for our archdiocese are available here. As we shared in a blog post earlier this week, these recommendations come out of efforts to walk with and listen to abuse survivors from across the country, as well as careful research of best practices implemented in other dioceses.
Awake Unveils Next-Step Recommendations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Today we at Awake Milwaukee begin sharing a series of recommendations that we developed to help our local Church take further steps to address the evil of sexual abuse.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has already taken important steps to ensure a safer Church, but more action is needed. We believe the best response to sexual abuse in the Church has two parts: first, accompanying and supporting victim-survivors in their pursuit of truth, accountability, and healing, and second, working proactively to prevent future abuse.
Carol Longsdorf
“One of the most helpful things is working with a trauma therapist who has helped me understand why childhood trauma is so very difficult to uncover.”
Researchers Seek Information About Jesuit Daniel Kenney, “The Monkey Priest” with Milwaukee Connections
A group of academic researchers at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska has been working to gather information about Daniel Kenney, a popular Jesuit priest credibly accused of sexually abusing boys who attended Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha between 1965 and 1989. Kenney’s career also included multiple periods in Milwaukee.
6 Things Never to Say About Survivors of Clergy Abuse
Back in 2021 I wrote a blog post for Awake that covered some of the hurtful things that people sometimes say to clergy abuse survivors, along with more supportive things they might say instead. Many people read it and several survivors—including my mom—responded with additional things that they’ve heard from Catholics and would add to the list.
What Should I Do If Someone Tells Me They’ve Been Abused? The 5-Step VEEEL Method
This week we revisit this terrific advice from Deborah Rodriguez, MD, who spells out how to respond if someone discloses their abuse to you. It’s helpful for anyone who wants to respond to victim-survivors with healing compassion.