September 2023 – Participated in an Interfaith Event addressing sexual abuse, at Reston Community Center

August 2023 – Hosted the movie, “By the Grace of God”

February 2023 – Participated in a panel at Georgetown University, “Building Hope and Resistance – What Are the Dynamics of Cultural Change and Transformation in Child Safeguarding?”

October 2022 – Co-Hosted the online Zoom webinar, “An Evening of Testimony – An Invitation to Hope,” along with Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science

September 2022 – Hosted the movie, “Spotlight“

April 2022 – Hosted the Michael Mack one-act play, “Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith“

May 2021 – Parenting in the Digital Age presentation featuring Deacon Marques Silva from the Diocese of Arlington.

April 2021 – National Child Abuse Prevention Month was marked by a few virtual events: a Prayer Vigil, a Taizé Prayer service, and a discussion for teens and parents about what it means to be a Catholic in the midst of a scandal.

A Pinwheels for Prevention garden was featured on the church grounds throughout the month of April, as well. The pinwheels represent childlike whimsy and lightheartedness and our vision for a world where all children grow up happy, healthy. The pinwheels are a reminder that we all play a role in children’s lives and we each have a responsibility to help prevent child abuse.

August 2020 – Authored We Are The Church: Building Lay Commitment in the Wake of the Sexual Abuse and Leadership Failures within the Church, a series of ten online Zoom meetings to foster the co-responsibility of the laity in healing our Church.

Summer/Fall 2020 – The We Are The Church program ran virtually in 2020 and explored sexual abuse within the Church and the leadership failures that allowed sexual abuse to become such an awful problem. We Are the Church aims to help participants learn more about the voice of the laity within the Church and commit to healing and renewing the Church in the wake of the revelations of sexual abuse. We will be running this program again so please stay tuned!

January 2020 – An Evening of Testimony: Personal Stories from those Abused by Clergy: More than 80 people from more than seven parishes came together to hear the testimonies from survivor-victims of sexual abuse.

Spring/Summer 2019 – Healing Our Church: A number of ACTION group members and SJN parishioners participated in a six-session program to share and pray about the church’s sex abuse crisis. Healing Our Church consists of guided discussions topics, statements from survivors, scripture, and prayer.

June 2019 – Town Hall with Fr. Lewis Fiorelli: Fr. Fiorelli, provincial for the Wilmington-Philadelphia region for the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, spoke about:

• the Oblates’ history with the sex abuse crisis, what they have done and will be doing

• his advocacy for the victims of clerical abuse

• the selection and formation of Oblate seminarians

• current reforms underway in the Church

This event was in partnership with Our Lady of Good Counsel CAPACT (Capital Advocates for Church and Transparency). Fr. Fiorelli is co-author of Veronica’s Veil, Spiritual Companionship for Survivors of Abuse.

January 2019 – Postcard Campaign: Leading up to Pope Francis’ Vatican Summit on the Abuse of Minors, SJN parishioners sent 400 postcards to various bishops attending the summit.

November 2018 – Prayer Vigil: The vigil included a rosary, scripture reading, and special intentions for healing of the abused. We also prayed for guidance of the Holy Spirit for the U.S. Council of Bishops during their Fall Assembly as they discussed the issues involved with the crisis.

November 2018 – Letter to U.S. Bishops: More than 600 SJN parishioners signed a letter to the bishops leading up to the U.S. Bishops Fall Assembly.