Courageous Conversation: Why We Must Work Toward a Trauma-Sensitive Church
Awake’s latest Courageous Conversation, “Cultivating a Gospel Response to Trauma,” considered why Catholics are called to create faith communities sensitive to the needs of people with traumatic wounds, including those who have been abused in the Church. A recording of the November 21 event is available below.
This information-packed conversation included Pete Singer, the executive director of GRACE, or Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, which helps Christian churches and organizations recognize, prevent, and respond to abuse. He has a master’s degree in social work and writes on the topic of trauma in faith communities including an important recent article, Toward a More Trauma-Informed Church: Equipping Faith Communities to Prevent and Respond to Abuse. Singer was joined by Paul Fahey, a limited licensed professional counselor, retreat leader, and host of the Third Space podcast. Fahey provides counseling for people who have been spiritually abused and creates resources for Church leaders to better safeguard their communities against all forms of abuse. He previously worked for eight years as the director of religious education at a Catholic parish.
Pete Singer
Singer began the conversation by describing trauma in terms of the “Three Es,” previously identified by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He explained that trauma is an EVENT that takes place, such as an assault or an accident, but it’s also the way that that event is EXPERIENCED and the ongoing EFFECTS of it.
Viewing traumatic experiences this way offers some hope, Singer noted. Although we cannot erase a painful event that has already taken place, we can help a suffering person by offering support that softens their experience and eases some of the ongoing effects of the event. “There's more hope in this understanding of trauma,” Singer said, “because there's more places that we can step in and make a difference.”
A Gospel Mandate to Care For Trauma Survivors
Fahey cited SAMHSA estimates that 70% of adults have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives. “That's 7 out of 10 people sitting in the pews with you in church,” Fahey said. “If you're on parish staff, that's 7 out of 10 people on your parish leadership board. That's 7 out of 10 priests in your diocese. That's 7 out of 10 religious sisters in your community.”
Paul Fahey
This means that a majority of people we encounter have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives, “and that needs to shape how we perceive people and how we respond to people,” he said.
The Gospels and Church social teaching mandate that Catholics “care for, prioritize, and learn from survivors of trauma,” Fahey stressed. Specifically, “we have in our teaching what the Church calls the ‘preferential option for the poor,’ which the Church defines as more broad than those economically or materially poor,” he said. “It includes everyone who's vulnerable, marginalized, sick, or oppressed by the powerful. We must give them preference both in our care and in the voices that we prioritize and learn from.”
Unfortunately, instead of prioritizing the poor, some in the Catholic community grant “a preferential option for the institution,” Fahey said. “And that [is] putting the needs of an organization or even the Church's institutions above the infinite dignity of every person. [W]e must educate ourselves about trauma because we have a mandate to prioritize care for and listening and learning from survivors.”
LET’S DISCUSS WHAT WE HEARD. JOIN US!
Don’t miss Part 2 of this Courageous Conversation, 7 pm Central on Thursday, December 5. (The event is delayed by one week due to Thanksgiving.) Attendees will break into small groups to discuss the ideas shared by the panelists in Part 1. To join us, please complete the registration for Part 2 and watch the video recording before you attend. See you on December 5!
What a Trauma-Aware Church Looks Like
Singer talked through six elements of trauma-aware faith communities, which he based on existing guidelines from SAMHSA. These include:
Safety. A trauma-aware community prioritizes safety. “This isn't just … physical safety, but it's … emotional safety,” Singer said. “It's … psychological safety, it's … spiritual safety. So often abuse can cause an incredible spiritual harm.”
Trustworthiness and Transparency. The goal is “to act in a way that is worthy of trust, not as a tool to get people to trust you, but simply because as followers of Christ … we are called to be trustworthy,” Singer explained. “We're not called to lies and coverups and deception, we are called to bring to light that which has been in darkness, to be this trustworthy beacon.”
Peer Support. This involves meeting the needs of people in the community who are wounded, while also centering “the voice of those with shared experience, the voice of those who have been through it,” Singer said. “We need to be listening to a person who has experienced abuse and be listening to their wisdom and their insights.” And the Church should invite survivors, to the degree that they are willing, to help shape how the Church responds to and prevents abuse.
Collaboration and Mutuality. “This [is the] idea that we aren't in this alone and we can't do this all by ourselves,” Singer said. People in faith communities must work together with people who have experienced abuse. Similarly, faith communities benefit when their leaders collaborate with mental health providers, for example, to provide help to people who are suffering.
Empowerment, Voice, and Choice. “We recognize that trauma, by its very nature, strips power away from a person and silences a voice,” Singer explained. “And it's our job to walk alongside that person as they take some of that power back, as they find their voice.”
Humility in the Face of Historical, Cultural, and Gender Factors. Sometimes aspects of a person’s story, such as their race, ethnicity, or gender, have played a role in the wounds that they have suffered. “We need to listen and we need to pay attention to those historical, cultural and gender variables,” he said.
Fahey noted that these six factors in trauma-awareness echo elements of the final report from the Synod on Synodality, issued this fall. “It explicitly calls for church leaders and really all the baptized at every level to have more transparency, have more accountability, have more collaborative decision making, prioritizing the vulnerable and the marginalized, listening to survivors, listening to those who have been oppressed by the powerful,” Fahey said. “These are explicitly called for by the synod delegates, approved by the Pope three weeks ago. So not only are these principles not foreign to the Catholic tradition, they're actually encouraged and mandated by the Church's teaching.”
Later in the event, the panelists listened to the words of three survivors who shared interactions they’ve had in their parish communities in the aftermath of abuse, both negative and positive. Singer and Fahey offered concrete feedback about these interactions, including what would have made those interactions more helpful and healing. They also answered questions from the audience.
“Integral to Our Work as Church”
As the event drew to a close, Singer commented that the work of healing and creating a trauma-aware Church takes time. “We're all on a journey, including a journey of healing for many of us,” he said. “And so in that process, have compassion on yourself. We don't get there overnight. Things take time.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that as Catholics pursue trauma-aware environments they should also expect accountability of their leaders. “That's accountability for actions of harm, and accountability for not getting it right as well,” he said. “There can be learning, there can be growth, but there can also be accountability.”
And Fahey noted that all of these efforts are essential to the Catholic faith. “Being a more trauma-aware Catholic, being a more trauma-aware Christian is not extraneous to our mission as Church, but is an integral and central part of what it means to be Christian,” he said. “This is not an extra thing. This is integral to our work as Church.”
How to Learn More About Trauma
Speakers Pete Singer and Paul Fahey shared multiple resources that faith leaders and others can use to start to educate themselves about trauma. Here are a few places to begin learning:
Toward a More Trauma-Informed Church: Equipping Faith Communities to Prevent and Respond to Abuse is Singer’s recent article.
The GRACE website features hundreds of free resources. Click “Learn More” and then “Videos” for recordings of monthly webinars. Under “Resources” you’ll find articles on an array of topics.
Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church, a book by Diane Langberg, discusses the forms that power takes and how it is abused.
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman, is a classic book describing trauma and its impact.
Escaping the Maze of Spiritual Abuse: Creating Healthy Christian Cultures, is a book by Lisa Oakley and Justin Humphreys
Deliver Us, a 2019 podcast from America Media, includes interviews with sexual abuse survivors, advocates, and other experts.
To help us all listen to and learn from survivors, the Awake website features a series of Survivor Stories shared by people who have experienced abuse in the Church.
Awake is community that strives to be compassionate, survivor-centered, faithful, welcoming, humble, courageous, and hopeful. We thank you for choosing your words with care, and we reserve the right to remove comments that are inappropriate or hurtful.
