A New Organization Aims to Force Church Officials to Confront Clergy Abuse during Advent

November 30, 2018

A recently founded organization aims to force the Catholic Church to truly reckon with the clergy abuse crisis during this Advent season, and we like their creative approach.

Not1Dime is an organization that has recently been founded by concerned Catholics who are looking to find ways to get the church's attention. On their website, they explain their idea:

"Fellow Catholics, starting the first day of Advent, December 2, 2018 join Not 1 Dime and place 9 cents, (a nickel and 4 pennies) in the collection basket during Mass. We also encourage people to mail the same to Pope Francis, and every Bishop, Priest, Cardinal with a letter stating the above.
We recommend that anyone who participates in Not 1 Dime start their own personal Escrow Account with the money they would normally give to the Church. If appropriate actions are taken the money can be given at a later date. If the response is unsatisfactory the money could be donated to help victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking."

We support any action taken by concerned catholics to force their church officials to properly address the sex abuse crisis. We encourage you to visit the Not1Dime web page and learn more about their call to action and find some helpful resources and information. Thanks Ray and Ed for your work on behalf of survivors!

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Showing 3 comments

John Seryak commented 2019-01-03 06:45:04 -0600
Creative actions on the part of the laity confronting our Church and supporting victim/survivors of clergy and religious sexual abuse is so important. The ‘laity’ is as much a part of our Church as the clergy, religious and governing hierarchy. Recently, on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, I attended mass. I informed the celebrant that I would be refraining from receiving the Eucharist/Holy Communion ( a new kind of Eucharistic Fast ) as a show of support for all the surviving victims of clergy sexual abuse. Many survivors can not even enter a Catholic church let alone receive the sacrament of the Eucharist. At communion time, I approached the priest, crossed my arms over my chest and received a blessing in support for victims of clergy sexual abuse. The Feast of the Holy Innocents is an apropos feast day to do this action as today’s surviving victims were also ‘holy innocents’.
Edward Riehle commented 2018-12-05 15:28:52 -0600
We sent out the first tranche of letters this week, and will finish with every Bishop in the US on Friday. We are hoping for some response and real leadership. Happy to keep everyone updated, and we will post on our website. We really appreciate all of the support and letters received to date- and very much thank SNAP for blogging about us.
Mike Scull commented 2018-12-01 16:50:52 -0600
Could I recommend a read for those that still attend church. ’Potiphar’s Wife: The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse’ …the author Kieran Tapsell also advised the Australian Royal Commission on Canon Law. https://johnmenadue.com/kieran-tapsells-potiphars-wife/

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