ECA GLOBAL NEWS.
FALL 2021.
HEAD OF FRENCH BISHOPS SAYS ABUSE REPORT IS DEVASTATING
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OCTOBER 1, 2021: FRANCE.
For 3 years, the French commission, CIASE, investigated sexual abuse committed in the church. This commission compiled a 2,000+ page report and the report has not ruled out any point of the systemic dimension of the problem.
In the words of a survivor of clerical abuse in France, François Devaux, founder of the association La Parole Libérée, the report “points to the failure of the church in its governance, the amateurism of canon law, the inaction of the bishops, the psychic grip, the self- esteem, the absence of women in the life of the church, the positions taken on sexuality, theology. In short, he says that everything must be refounded to provide a guarantee of operation.”
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CALL FOR FRENCH BISHOPS TO RESIGN
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OCTOBER 12, 2021: FRANCE.
Anne Soupa, a lay theologian who “applied” to be Archbishop of Lyon last year, is one of three high-profile Catholics in France urging bishops to stand down. “As a sign of hope and renewal, we ask for the collective resignation of all the bishops in office. It is the only gesture commensurate with the catastrophe and the loss of confidence in which we find ourselves,” says the “Appeal for a Renewed and Trustworthy Church”, which was posted on October 11, 2021.
“Faced with this bankruptcy, the resignation of the bishops is the only honorable solution,” said Anne Soupa, a theologian and married mother of four adult children who “applied” last year to become Archbishop of Lyon.
READ MORE HERE
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ABUS SEXUELS : L’ÉGLISE CATHOLIQUE DOIT PRENDRE SES RESPONSABILITÉS
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Nous sommes un collectif de victimes ayant contribué aux travaux de la Commission Indépendante sur les Abus Sexuels dans l’Eglise (CIASE).
Cette commission a permis d’établir la réalité des faits de violences sexuelles dans l’Eglise. Les victimes ont un droit à réparation du préjudice subi; les responsables ecclésiaux doivent mettre leurs actes en cohérence avec le discours qu’ils prétendent tenir .
SIGNER LA PÉTITION
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FIRST AFRICAN WOMAN EVER NAMED TO INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
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OCTOBER 1, 2021; AFRICA.
Dr. Josée Ngalula, a Congolese native and member of the Sisters of Saint Andrew, is one of five women named to the 28-member theological “think tank” at the Vatican.
READ MORE
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AFRICAN CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY GIRLS, CONTINUE TO LIVE WITH SEXUAL VIOLENCE
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AUGUST 1, 2021: AFRICA. Of the many hardships endured by African children — beyond poverty, hunger and disease — violence is surely the worst, because it is almost entirely preventable, yet leaves lasting scars. African children, especially girls, continue to live with sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced labour, corporal punishment and countless other forms of abuse. READ MORE
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TOTYA PLATFORM IN MPIGI, UGANDA WORKS TO END SEXUAL VIOLENCE
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CASE STUDY: Baby Sharon(not her real names)story
Community Awareness
The now 2 year old Sharon is the youngest client that we have, she was defiled by her mother’ boyfriend.
Sharon’s mother Josephine separated with her husband in July 2020, (father to Sharon) due to both physical and emotional violence, in effort to escape from all that, she met a new man, who became her boyfriend. He rented a house and gave her a small charcoal selling business to make life better for her, she seemed contented but this happiness didn’t last for long.
In October 2020, as Sharon mother had gone to buy some necessities from a nearby shop, the boyfriend took the opportunity of her absence and defiled the 18 months old child, on her arrival, she found the child in endless tears and wondered what could have happened, by then her boyfriend had run away after hearing footsteps on her way home. Its with the continuous tears that she noticed that there were blood stains on the child that she decided to run to a nearby clinic where she was advised to go to the health centre for better services.
It was at this point that news got to one of our trained para social workers who later informed us and support was rendered to the child and her mother, From the results of the medical check-up done, there was evidence of penetration into Sharon private parts, and with this conclusion, more investigations were made as the case was reported at police. By the support of Totya, Sharon got better treatment and has no more health threatening issues.
With constant follow up of about four months, the suspect was arrested and convicted with a case of aggregated defilement.
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CASE STUDY: Josephine (not real names)
Meet Josephine, a 5-year-old in Kamengo, who was defiled in the June 2021.
She was playing outside with her friends when the suspect; Tony called her to a nearby guava tree as he picked some fruits and gave her one, he then grabbed her, held her tight and inserted his fingers into her (private parts) vagina and also rubbed his knee against her vagina, all through this Josephine continued to struggle and shout for help, her wails were eventually heard by her 8 year old brother, Paul, who found her with the suspect and called out for help as he continued to beg the man to ‘let his sister be’. Her brother’s calls for help also attracted the attention of her other friends some of who, on seeing what was happening, ran to go and inform her grandmother, this saved Josephine because the suspect released her and ran away.
The incident was reported to the police and through the Totya Platform contacts at the Police the victim’s family sought further assistance from us, we offered to support the police to further the investigation and provided medical support to little Josephine to care for the bruises she attained during the assault and she was also examined further.
We have continued to provide post trauma counselling to Little Josephine and her family. This kind of trauma especially in children does not only affect them but their parents/guardians too.
Who is Josephine?
Josephine is the 2nd born child to her parents Naiga Brenda (a house wife) and Sentamu Ronald (a boda boda rider) who are currently staying in Kitintale a suburb in Kampala district.
Josephine and her 8-year-old brother Paul Mukia were brought to stay with their maternal grandmother in Kamengo when schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her parents opted to send them to the ‘the village’ to live with their grandmother citing cost of living challenges that where brought about by the COVID-19 ‘lock-down’ mainly affected her father’s boda boda business.
According to the 62-year-old grandmother Amelia Nabatya, her daughter was barely surviving in Kampala and the children would eat only one meal a day so they all thought it best for the children to stay with her since she has a garden of food, this was how the children came to stay with their grandmother.
What has been done
Medical support was rendered to the victim, for full body check-up, it was found out that her private parts had bruises and was in pain, she therefore received antibiotics and other tests such as HIV were also taken to ascertain her status.
Transport was provided for the victim, her guardian and her brother who was a witness to all this, this was for him to identify the suspect among the many who had been arrested by the police in Mpigi Police station.
They continue to receive physiological support from Totya, to come to terms with this incidence, much as the victim has gone back to freely playing with her friends, she is still scared of strange male figures.
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PLEASE DONATE TO ECA TO SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE
TOTYA PLATFORM IN UGANDA
ECA PARTICIPATES IN SYMPOSIUM IN BERNA ABOUT CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES
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ECA Board Member, Simone Padovani and Matthias Katch Katsch, ECA Member and German activist for victims of child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, attended a Symposium in Berna about child sexual abuse cases, with a focus on clergy abuse. The Symposium which was held from 17 to 19 of September, in Bern, Switzerland, highlighted the European situation of clergy sexual abuse and proposed next steps. The organizer is the Guido Furi Foundation. For more information, please link to the website https://www.guido-fluri-stiftung.ch/de/
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AN UPDATE FROM THE NETWORK OF SURVIVORS OF ABUSE IN FAITH-BASED INSTITUTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND
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It is four years since we are started lobbying the New Zealand Government for a fully inclusive Inquiry and four years of engaging with the Royal Commission and voicing survivors concerns, endeavoring to ensure the Inquiry would be a safe place, with trauma informed processes that would minimize re-trauma for survivors reporting their abuse and achieve the systemic change required to prevent further abuse in out of home care and to ensure all survivors, regardless of where they were abused, receive adequate and appropriate redress. Please reach out to Dr. Murray Heasley for more information. Email: murray.heasley@gmail.com
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A MAP OF CONFIRMED AND ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE BY OFFICIALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.
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PHOTOVOICE PROJECT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF PADUA
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ECA Founding/Board Member, Photographer and Community Psychologist,Simone Padovani, is working with the University of Padua in Italy on a year-long research project to assist survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
Interested participants will be asked to collect a series of pictures accompanied by text that tell their daily life as survivors of abuse. In addition, participants will be interviewed and asked to answer a questionnaire that will investigate the quality of life, resilience, etc., according to the indications of the World Health Organization. A photographic report on the life of the survivor of sexual abuse will be made and sent to the research group of the University of Padua for analysis.
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PHOTO SHARING AND ECA FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
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This project is born to help victims, survivors and friends of ECA Global who would like to help themselves and help ECA raise funds for our projects.
ECA has provided guidelines that will assist you in understanding which kind of images or videos you can produce which can be distributed through 2 agencies: SHUTTERSTOCK AND ALAMY.COM.
We will assist you in how to prepare and send your images for upload to the agency portals and how the financial aspect works.
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Sebastian Cuattromo, Argentina Survivor/Founder,
Adultxs por los derechos de la infancia
“As adult survivors of the crime of sexual abuse and as representatives of our collective association, we are happy to have met new colleagues who, like us, have the conviction to fight to end the sexual abuse of children in the world. It was a great pleasure…
Hopefully we can continue to work together for justice for survivors and for the protection of today’s children.” Sebatián Cuattromo and Silvia Piceda
Founding members of the Civil Association “Adults for Children´s Rights”
Zero Tolerance + Zero Cover Up = Truth and Justice
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BE AN ECA SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR
ECA’s Social Media Ambassadors Program is an exciting and easy way FOR YOU to get involved with ECA and to encourage existing members who know and love the mission of ECA to spread the word about ECA globally.
ECA will utilize Social Media Ambassadors to direct strong social media campaigns and ECA messages to target specific regions and issues relating to the sexual abuse of children by clergy.
ECA has a number of campaigns in the pipeline and we need you to get involved. Together we will #EnditNOW!
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Signing up is easy!
Here’s how to shop AmazonSmile:
1. Visit smile.amazon.com
2. Sign in with your Amazon.com credentials
3. Choose a charitable organization to receive donations,
4. Select your charity (Ending Clergy Abuse USA)
4. Start shopping!
5. Add a bookmark for smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile!
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