Victim Correction, Summary Page 3

“God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is not as I would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next—Amen.”—REINHOLD NIEBUHR
“Almighty and merciful God, by the power of the Holy Spirit you raised Jesus Christ, your Son, from death and filled him with new and abundant life. Then, in accordance with your loving plan, you sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost, that by his mighty gifts they might be joined to the Risen Lord in his Body, the Church. By a fresh outpouring of the Spirit’s gifts give new life to the Church in Boston this Pentecost. We beg that the Spirit will bring healing to the victims of clergy sexual abuse and their families. We pray that the Spirit will warm the hearts of those whose faith has been weakened by this scandal. We ask that the Spirit will bestow mercy and repentance on the abusers. We earnestly desire that the Spirit will renew and reform the whole Church in the likeness of Christ. Fill every member of the Church with holiness so that, working together as the Body of Christ, we might be built up in faith, hope and love [The original Greek word for “love” in “faith hope and love,” sometimes translated as “charity,” was agápè, meaning unconditional love.] in order to proclaim the Gospel with joy. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”—CARDINAL BERNARD LAW, a novena for his flock to keep their hearts too warm for them to become resentful about the molestations.
“When sixty-nine-year-old actress Viveca Lindfors was slashed in the throat by a man wielding a razor in the streets of New York City in early 1990, she received twenty-seven stitches to close the wound, then proceeded on to her planned poetry reading and expressed sympathy for her attacker, who was later arrested. Certainly there are others who, in Lindfors’s place, would have been debilitated by the event. The critical factor was not what happened but the victim’s preexisting mental health and attitude.... If you were fondled at an early age by a close friend or family member, you may actually have enjoyed the experience. Simply because your therapist or self-help group interprets an incident as molestation does not mean that you ever felt abused. (Often molestation is identified on the basis of the perpetrator’s arousal alone, and the ‘victim’ may not even have been aware that anything unacceptable was taking place.) And if you never felt abused, it’s highly unlikely that your victimization caused you any lasting scars.... But remember that the goal of recovery is to interpret your past experiences so that you can go on to lead a normal, healthy life. Adopting the survivor/victim role as a badge of courage—regardless of how severely you were victimized—will not enable you to reach this goal.”—The Codependency Conspiracy, by Dr. Stan J Katz & Aimee E. Liu (Yet this same chapter also says, “Assuming comparable and relatively minor physical injuries, a soldier who is shot during a foreign war [which says nothing about whether he should fear those at home] is less likely to suffer permanent emotional distress than the target of a drive-by shooting in her own neighborhood [which says plenty about whether she should be optimistic or pessimistic about her own future],” so maybe the feelings about these past experiences aren’t just resentments about past history.)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”—Jesus, Matthew 5:43-48