New national Garden promises healing for abuse survivors and all Catholics
A national garden in the nation’s capital proposed by survivors of clergy sexual abuse promises to foster healing not only for survivors but also for the Catholic Church as a whole.
“We can’t heal alone,” said Mike Hoffman, chair of the National Healing Garden Working Group. “We want to heal with you, with our Church, with the bishops, with the priests. We want to heal together,” added the executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative, a group dedicated to restorative justice for survivors of Catholic clergy abuse.
East side of Caldwell Hall
Hoffman, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by clergy, and Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, spoke with OSV News about the efforts behind the National Healing Garden, which will be on the grounds of The Catholic University of America in Washington. The garden is planned for the east side of Caldwell Hall by the St. Francis Peace Garden.