Interfaith News on Sexual Recovery

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Sexual recovery news related to clergy sexual abuse and ritual abuse is located in the Faith Communities section.

December 1999

Ireland: Rights Groups Support Dean's Criticism of Prisons. Human rights groups have supported the strong attack by the new Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral on the failure of the prison system and the scarcity of treatment facilities for offenders. The Very Rev Robert MacCarthy criticised the Government for its failure to invest in programmes for sex offenders and drug addicts, especially in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. [The Irish Times]

U.K.: Anglican Church Condemns Jails as "Deeply Damaging". By Victoria Combe. Prison is a deeply damaging experience and most inmates should not be locked up at all, according to a Church of England report published in November. Prisons: A Study in Vulnerability is a collection of essays on vulnerable prisoners such as children, women, mentally ill offenders and sex offenders. [The Electronic Telegraph]

U.S.: Ex-Child Molester Faces His Own Past to Help Offenders and Victims. By Andy Butcher. Bob Van Domelen was jailed for five years – but today he helps others find freedom through his rare ministry. [Charisma News Service]

U.S.: Seminar Held on Prison Ministry to Sex Offenders. Two workshops on sex offenders were part of a one-day seminar held in Winter Park, Florida, for people involved in prison ministries. [Philia]

September 1999

RECENT NEWS

Irish Catholics Sponsor Forum on Child Sexual Abuse

 
Ireland: Child Sexual Abuse Victims Address Conference. A conference on child sexual abuse, sponsored by the National Conference of Priests in Ireland, heard addresses in April by both victims and experts in the field of sexual abuse. [The Irish Times]

Ireland: Counselling for Victims and Abusers an "Emergency". By Vincent Browne. At the Franciscan Friary on Merchant's Quay, a few priests, psychologists and survivors gathered in July to launch a booklet of papers from a conference last April on sex abuse. [The Irish Times]

Ireland: More Trauma for Victims When Abusers are Jailed. By Padraig O'Morain. Many sexual abuse victims are further traumatised by the imprisonment of their abuser, especially if he is a family member, a psychologist writes in a new booklet published by the National Conference of Priests of Ireland. [The Irish Times]

U.S.: Ex-Gay Ministry Starts Support Group Devoted to Pedophilia. Metanoia Ministries, a Christian sexual recovery organization in Seattle, Washington, is planning to begin a support group for men who are sexually attracted to boys. [Philia]

PAST NEWS

Israel: Israeli Programs Help Families Overcome Scourge of Child Abuse. By Michele Chabin. Long a taboo subject in Israeli society, child abuse "has been slowly let out of the closet,'' says Hana Katz, director of Children at Risk programs at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Israel. "People just couldn't accept the fact that Jewish parents can abuse their children.'' [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]

June 1999

RECENT NEWS

World: Offenders and Survivors Gather Again to Heal Together. Following the demise of the Internet's most active set of forums for recovering offenders and abuse survivors, Healing Together has brought the participants of AReASON together once more. The new site includes a discussion board devoted to spiritual healing. [Philia]

Canada: Community Volunteers to Work with Sex Offenders. In 1997, Ontario's Mennonites began an innovative program to help ex-offenders adjust to their new lives. Now a similar program has been started in Manitoba. [Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba News Releases]
 

Circles of Support [Mennonite Central Committee News Service] 

U.S.: Prison Fellowship Shares News of "Into the Light". "Into the Light," a newsletter for recovering offenders that started with 43 subscribers in May 1997, now has over one thousand subscribers, thanks in part to a testimony published by the Christian organization Prison Fellowship. [Philia]

PAST NEWS

U.S.: Ecumenical Group Airs Documentary on Innovative Justice Program. "Restoring Justice," produced for the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), explores a cutting edge concept in criminal justice. [NCC News] 

U.S.: Jewish Therapist Examines Strategies for Dealing with Sex Offenders. By Linda Bayer. Cloe Madanes, co-director of the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C., criticizes psychology for separating morality from therapy. Relating psychotherapy to mysticism, she says the practitioner must identify with the client's pain if treatment is to be successful. [Washington Jewish Week]