Behind the Friendly Smiles and Soothing Words
See that nice man, holding the little girl’s hand? That’s the priest who abused me and thirty other children.
Broken
Read stories about the broken lives of abuse victimes, and the search for healing after abuse.
Angry at the Catholic Church
The Language of Righting Wrongs The other night at my Spanish class I saw a woman I knew, but I couldn’t remember where I’d met her. So I introduced myself and we did that thing where you both list all your affiliations and social activities, looking for anything that connects. One of the activities I … Read more
Happy Veterans Day – To all kinds of veterans
If you think about it, the veterans we honor this Veterans Day are actually survivors. They have come through terrific conflicts, hardships, pain, injury, devastating losses of comrades. Theirs is a vast sacrifice and they deserve every ounce of honor and support we can give them, on this day and any other. But as we … Read more
Sexual Abuse Rings Flourishing Because They’re Good for Business?
Profiting off sexual abuse rings It’s time law enforcement and victims groups took a hard look at the operations surrounding sexual abuse rings. From The Western Daily Press: “Police chiefs in Wiltshire have made six arrests as part of a major day of action against child sexual exploitation to try to prevent ‘another Rotherham’ happening … Read more
God Is Not Afraid, But Bishops Are
It appears my reluctance to embrace the Vatican’s inclusive new stance on gays was appropriate. Just a week after the initial statement, the bishops backtracked, then watered-down the original wording, then failed to accept even that. And we’re right back where we started. The AP reported: Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays Saturday, … Read more
Hello! I’m Mary Dispenza
I, Mary Dispenza, want to fix the systems that break people I was once a broken person. Now, through this blog, I look at broken systems and ideas for making them whole again. This blog is about finding ways to help broken people, ideas for overcoming personal breakage and how to live unabashed. As an … Read more