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"...The worst pain was from being betrayed as a patient, as
a child, as someone who is vulnerable." |
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Sexual Exploitation Survivors
Speak Out!
Maureen Redler
In my drive within the Diocese of Birmingham I have
done NOTHING but push the ideal that each victims needs are unique to that
person.
I will say this... I was horribly beaten and mentally tortured as
well as sexually molested as a child. To put things in
perspective... I would rather take a beating and would beg to be
beat than suffer the endless torture of the mind. When I spoke
before three huge crowds about abuse and sexual exploitation as an
adult I put it into perspective this way. March 20th I suffered a
shattered right leg that twisted my toes 180 degrees so they were
facing backwards, several broken ribs, a cracked sternum, crushed
heart and crushed lung. When they lifted me to take me out of the
car I was very alert and feeling every bit of the pain. My foot
snapped back around and I felt the bones grinding against each
other. That was not the worst pain I have ever been in. No, child
birth wasn't either, or all the broken face bones or even the sexual
abuse itself.... The worst pain was from being betrayed as a
patient, as a child, as someone who is vulnerable. Their denial and
the lies and the mental games they played to cover their butts at my
expense. That was the worst pain. It is different for everyone. I
can only perceive one other thing that would cause me greater pain
the loss of one of my beloved children who are my life.
I have learned by listening to other victims that their
perception (feelings for the perp or fear etc.) needs to be
respected and that developing a canned response is not the answer...
a little something the Catholic Church refuses to listen to.
We need to listen to the victims and individualize what we do so
they can heal.
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