Why Consider Returning to a Faith that Betrayed Us?

Healing, Learning and Growing (Archdiocese of Chicago newsletter) 4, no 2 (November 2014). A gentle suggestion why returning to Catholicism is important for survivors — and those whom they love, also known as a invitation to a mature faith rich because of, not despite, suffering.

There are many compelling reasons not to disrupt a settled life just to revisit a childhood experience of sexual abuse. I have championed these reasons. Reason helped me resist grief and suffering. It was my last line of defense against remembering in psychological Technicolor. I had made a break with my past, and I wanted to keep it that way.

Reason, like my very ample anger, was a source of power, too. After having been overpowered by my abuser to spend years weakened, like a dazed and wounded prey, I held tightly to whatever made me feel powerful. What if danger returned?

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