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I am a Graduate student at UC Davis. I attend Mass and "Newman Nights" when I am in Sacramento at The CSUS Newman Center. I always learn something new and interesting about my faith, and enjoy the activites. In September a speaker from the California Catholic Legislation Conference came to speak with us about the Catholic presence in California Legislation. I cannot remember his name but he brought his assistant ERICA with him to assist with his presentation. Everything was going very well. The speaker and ERICA took questions at the end about weather or not Priests are required to tell police if the penitent confesses to molesting a child. The Program Director MEGAN got very emotional, she raised her voice in front of the students, the speaker, and the Church Director ROBERT. She began to explain the importance of protecting the rights of the Priest and the rights of the Penitent if indeed he had molested a child. The conversation was interesting and well handled by the guest speaker and ERICA but MEGAN was very innapropriate and insensetive. MEGANS outburst was so innapropriate that another student had to change the subject with an immigration boarder question. We were all relieved. MEGAN appeared "out of sorts" and "overly passionate" which is not like her. She was suggesting to all of us that if one of us molested a child, that that is between us and God, and if someone molested us, that would be between the molestor and God. I decided to keep this to myself until I viewed the Sacramento Catholic Diocese Website today and found I.C.P. The Independent Compensation Program, (for victims and survivors of sexual abuse by priests) on the homepage of the website. I am a survivor of sexual abuse by a family member, not church related, and I felt that the guest speaker and ERICA were far more mature and sensitive in the handling of the subject matter. MEGAN made me feel unsafe, her comments were incongruent with the points of the speaker and the approach of the church. I also found a program on the Diocese Website for The Pastoral Care for Victims Of Abuse. Please speak with MEGAN. This is an excellent learning opportunity for her, sensitivity training is imperative when speaking about subjects like this. What she said covered up all the help the Church provides for victims and made me feel terrible. For the sake of student-members of the church like me who have survived but choose not to share, please speak with her. Thank you for considering this issue.
Best,
Farrah M. read more