Category: Catholic Church

The Art of Dropping the Ball: Playing Catch with the Catholic Church

7/6/2014

“Your suffering, my suffering.
Whose do you prefer, my friend?”
--Kurt Brown, from his poem Agonistes

On June 28, 2013, I visited the offices of the Archdiocese of Boston for a scheduled meeting with Cardinal Sean O’Malley. With the help of Olan Horne, a board member of Instruments of Peace and one of five clergy abuse survivors who met privately with Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, this meeting was arranged to establish a relationship with the cardinal and introduce him to SafeNet. O’Malley’s recent appointment by Pope Francis to his inner circle of advisors earlier in the year had created a rare opportunity to open a dialogue with the Vatican.

The Men We Were Expected To Become

6/6/2014

“Whether it was having a good time, or working, or praying, there was something
different about the Franciscan spirit. It joined us together in one big family.”
--It Takes A Man, 1959

When I was a boy attending a Franciscan parochial school in San Francisco for a brief period during the fifties and sixties, a popular vocational film made the rounds each spring and was shown to every boy in the fourth through eighth grades by the pastor of our church in the school auditorium. This short, motivational film, “It Takes A Man,” was produced by the Franciscans with the intent of getting boys to think about the priesthood and what it meant to have a vocation for the Franciscan way of life.

The Sin of Spiritual Worldliness

5/1/2014

“Those who are put in charge of others should be no prouder of their office
than if they had been appointed to wash the feet of their confreres.”
--St Francis of Assisi

Early last year I received a letter from a classmate of mine from St. Anthony’s Seminary who wrote to tell me he was coming to Santa Barbara in April and hoped to get together with me. His youngest boy, a high school senior, had been accepted to UCSB. Father and son were now making the trip from their home in the southwest to visit the campus. Like me, David (not his real name) had been molested during his freshman year at the seminary. Unlike me, he hadn’t been back to Santa Barbara since he left the school in 1967.

Author

A Room With A Pew is a thought-provoking column on clergy abuse and the healing process. Its content reflects the observations, opinions and experiences of Paul Fericano, a former student who attended Saint Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara in the sixties, and a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Fericano co-founded SafeNet in 2003, and returned to Santa Barbara that same year to assist the community in recovery. As a poet, satirist and author, he is actively engaged in advocacy, social justice and reconciliation efforts. He supports and encourages those who have been harmed by the Catholic church to explore the healing process, pursue justice with compassion, and to reclaim their past. He is the editor and co-founder of Yossarian Universal News Service (YU News Service), the nation's first parody news syndicate established in 1980. His spiritual practice includes challenging himself to look for humor in the shadows.

Memories of Better Days Persist
Many St. Anthony's students have contacted me, and one asked about the barbershop, where he had sought refuge one day after his offender beat him. Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
TUES., APRIL 1, 2014
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No Matter How High the Hedge Grows
The Solidarity Project memorial for clergy abuse survivors at Mission Santa Barbara was vandalized for a second time by a person employed by the Franciscans.
Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
WED., MARCH 5, 2014
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Mario (Walter) Cimmarrusti, OFM: 1931 - 2013
The Worst of What We Lived
My offender, a notorious Catholic priest and Franciscan friar who abused many boys at St. Anthony's Seminary, died on November 23, 2013.
Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
THURS., FEBRUARY 13, 2014
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The Roots of Pastoral Response
Pastoral response is the kind of outreach by the church that is absolutely essential to the healing process.
Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
WED., FEBRUARY 5, 2014
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Looking for Francis in the Franciscans
Among survivors of clergy abuse, what puzzles, angers, and disappoints many is the shortage of moral courage among the friars in general.
Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
WED., JANUARY 8, 2014
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From Survival to Forgiveness
In 1965 when I was 14 I was sexually abused at St. Anthony’s, a Catholic minor seminary in Santa Barbara operated by the Franciscan religious order.
Read story.
by PAUL FERICANO
THURS., DECEMBER 5, 2013

The Art of Dropping the Ball: Playing Catch with the Catholic Church

The Men We Were Expected To Become

The Sin of Spiritual Worldliness

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