Sunday, October 07, 2012

Priest's book aims to help sexual abuse victims

http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297320216569_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x&stmp=1349203499803The top priest at St. Peter’s Seminary in London is tackling a topic often seen as taboo in the Catholic Church.

Rev. Stevan Wlusek, the rector at the seminary, penned From Darkness into Transforming Light, a book focusing on the how Catholic teachings can be used as a resource to help the spiritual healing process of sexual abuse survivors.

The target audience of the 299-page book is priests, bishops and abuse victims themselves, said Wlusek, an associate professor of spirituality and pastoral theology.

Wlusek, who served as the Bishop’s delegate for sexual abuse allegations for several years, has seen first-hand how sexual abuse wreaks destruction on survivors’ lives.

But he also knows the important role the Church can play to help rebuild these shattered lives.

“I found that there was something far deeper that they (survivors) were searching for that psychological service just couldn’t help,” he said. “And ultimately, they were searching for a new and deeper relationship with God that had been greatly wounded because of their being abused by a priest, who was to them an image of God in their childhood.”

Wlusek estimates that half of the sexual abuse survivors he encountered stayed in the Church.

However, they were still deeply hurting, he said.

“There’s a sense of loneliness, a sense of yearning for that relationship to be rekindled again.”

From Darkness into Transforming Light, two years in the work, has already gained attention from Bishops in Ontario.