While governments and health care workers everywhere are working to get the global pandemic under control, ECA is not remaining silent but doing its part to hold accountable those who have violated the rights of children in church settings. ECA continues to be committed to seeking justice for survivors and being a voice for change.
WORLD DAY FOR ABUSE PREVENTION
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APRIL 8, 2021: WORLDWIDE
We hope you will join ECA and SNAP for the April 8 World Day for Prevention Social Media Challenge! We want to flood Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with posts showing support for survivors. Here’s how you can participate.
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SURVIVOR APPOINTED TO PONTIFICAL COMMISSION
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MARCH 24, 2021: VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis appointed Juan Carlos Cruz to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz, a Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse, will sit on the Vatican commission for three years.
“I am very grateful to Pope Francis for trusting me with this appointment. I deeply appreciate it,” Cruz wrote on his Twitter account following the announcement on March 24.
“This renews my commitment to continue working to end the scourge of abuse and for so many survivors who still do have justice.”
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REPORT FINDS GERMANY’S LARGEST DIOCESE, A ‘CAVE’ OF SEXUAL ABUSE
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MARCH 18, 2021: COLOGNE, GERMANY. An independent study commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church released on Thursday March 18, 2021, has uncovered hundreds of cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by clergy and laymen in Germany’s top diocese. Marking an important step, knowing that this is just the tip of the iceberg, Founding Member of ECA, Matthias Katsch and other survivors and advocates demonstrated in front of the Cologne Cathedral.
The long-awaited 800-page report on the Cologne diocese found 202 alleged perpetrators of sexual assault and 314 victims between 1975 and 2018, Bjoern Gercke, a lawyer mandated by the Church, told reporters.
“More than half of the victims were children under the age of 14,” Mr. Gercke said. The findings show “that for decades, apparently no one dared to report such cases”. READ FULL ARTICLE
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ST. ANNE’S RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS RECEIVE FEDERAL ATTENTION
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MARCH 18, 2021: OTTAWA, CANADA. ECA Founding Member, Evelyn Korkmaz has worked tirelessly to bring to the attention of the Canadian government the injustices inflicted on the children at the St. Anne Residential School. It was one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools where survivors from Fort Albany First Nation in northern Ontario St. Anne’s, describe the place as a “veritable house of horrors where, for generations, indigenous children suffered unspeakable physical and sexual abuses.” Today there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
“The mistreatment of Indigenous children, including those who attended St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, is a tragic and shameful part of our country’s history,” Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said.
“A lot of hard work and pain has gone into getting the government to do the right thing! Thanks to the survivors, like you Evelyn who have never given up!” Nancy Mayer
READ MORE HERE
However there also seems to be mixed feelings about Ottawa’s request for an independent review. The Grand Chief implores the government to ‘do the right thing’… READ MORE HERE
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MARCH 7, 2021:WISCONSIN, USA. Advocates push for a clergy abuse investigation in memory of a Notre Dame graduate in Wisconsin, USA who committed suicide one year ago.
Nate Lindstrom, said he endured abuse by three Norbertine priests in the 1980s while he worked for clergymen.
“Nate’s mission has always been that this doesn’t happen to anybody else,” said his father, David. “There’s a lot of kids out there who have been molested, and it’s good to have them have a place to come forward.”
MORE INFO HERE
ECA Founding Member, Peter Isely is the Program Director for Nate’s Mission, which aims to support survivors and advocates for an investigation in Wisconsin. Click here for more information on Nate’s Mission: NATE’S MISSION
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UPCOMING SYMPOSIUM ON CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
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APRIL 8-10, 2021
The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science,
The Harvard Divinity School,
and
The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America
present
the Inaugural, International, Interdisciplinary Symposium
Faith and Flourishing in the Face of Childhood Sexual Abuse:
Strategies for Prevention and Healing
With a Keynote Address by the
Rev. Dr. Denis Mukwege, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
April 8–10, 2021
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LOOKING AHEAD:
In 2021 ECA will continue to support our activists from around the world through social media, press events, financial support for grass root efforts and legal support for hearings before the OAS Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Torture.
We will continue to work through the virtual networks and look forward to the opportunity when we can gather face-to-face to engage as a global collective.
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PHOTOVOICE PROJECT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF PADUA
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ECA 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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While scouring the many deals of Amazon, if you shop via smile.amazon.com, you get the exact same Amazon products you’d normally use, except that 0.5 percent of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice.
Choose ECA and while You shop, Amazon gives.
Go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose Ending Clergy Abuse USA as your charity.
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