Jan. 21 webinar to discuss how to accompany abuse victims, those hurt by the Church

CV NEWS FEED // The National Eucharistic Revival is set to host a live webinar Jan. 21 titled, “Walking with Someone Who has been Hurt by the Church.”

The 8 p.m. EST webinar offers insight on how to understand and address the sensitivity of this issue, the impact of trauma, what trauma-informed accompaniment can look like, and how to best help someone who has experienced hurt within the Church, according to a press release from the National Eucharistic Revival. The release notes that the webinar provides “an opportunity to deepen empathy and discover meaningful ways to support victim survivors on their healing journeys.”

The presenters for the webinar will include Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, Gina Barthel, and Sara Larson. Larson is the executive director of Awake, a nonprofit dedicated to informing people, especially Catholics, about sexual abuse in the Church, encouraging the Church to become more compassionate toward victims, and helping people heal.

Barthel is a survivor of clergy sex abuse who has for several years courageously been sharing her story and journey to healing. In the early 2000s, Barthel was sexually abused and coerced by her spiritual director while she was a novice in a convent. Following this, she left the order and returned to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where she reported the abuse and contributed to the abusive priest’s removal from active ministry. Bishop Cozzens helped her to find healing and return to the Church after six years away, according to the Central Minnesota Catholic. 

Barthel told Awaken in a May 2024 interview that in 2013, after hearing Bishop Cozzens speak on Relevant Radio, she sent him an email, asking to meet him. Bishop Cozzens replied to her email the same day. They met for the first time in January 2014, and they have been meeting regularly ever since.

“He has helped me move from being terrified of a relationship with Jesus to letting him reign in my heart again,” Barthel said. 

She told Awaken that Bishop Cozzens “provided a safe and sacred space for me to encounter my faith again.” She said her experience has taught her that those who have been wounded in the Catholic Church can find healing in the heart of the Catholic Church.

“Jesus is the great healer,” she told Awake, “It is [through] that heart-to-heart communication with the Divine that I have come to find healing in the heart of the Church, which ultimately is the heart of Jesus.”