Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors of Abuse, 20th February 2026
Homily of Bishop Kevin Doran
There is something very concrete about the season of Lent that seems to speak to people. On the first day of Lent, we used Ashes as a reminder of our starting point; the fact that on our own, we have nothing. Then throughout Lent, with prayer and penance, giving up things, and supporting the works of justice and mercy, we begin to become again the people God has called us to be.
I think most of us recognise that the change that is called for in Lent is not just about externals; it is primarily a change of heart. This comes across clearly this morning in the words of the prophet Isaiah, where we read that God’s priority is not “that a man would bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes” but rather that we would look to “releasing those bound unjustly ….setting free the oppressed ….sharing bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the lonely”. None of this happens without a change of heart.
Today, we have blessed and lit the Candle of Atonement, a simple symbol of our commitment to conversion in the matter of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. As we think of our brothers and sisters who have suffered abuse, these words of Scripture speak powerfully. I think most of us know people in our own environment who have suffered abuse. They study the same courses we do; they do ordinary jobs, and there is nothing about them that would make them stand out from the crowd. Yet many people in our community and in our Church carry a burden of sadness and pain because of what was done to them, often many years ago. They are “oppressed” and they need to be set free. What can we do?
Many of you will know that, over the past twenty years or more, the Church has engaged very actively in the development of policies and procedures for the safeguarding of children. Thanks to the hard work of key people in our own Dioceses, including safeguarding representatives in every parish, the Church is now an environment in which children and teenagers can participate fruitfully, safely and joyfully. That is a very positive development, but we cannot afford to assume that the problem is gone away. The first challenge is for all of us to remain attentive and to speak up when we see anything that doesn’t look right.
Safeguarding the children of today is hugely important, but it is not the only challenge. It is not so easy perhaps to see how best we should respond to the present experience of those who were abused in the past. This has been the focus of a working group on which I have had the privilege to serve over the past year. Among the participants in that working group were a number of survivors of abuse who spoke honestly with us and helped us to understand their needs. They were not negative or out to destroy the Church. Some of them, for reasons I can understand, are no longer engaged with Church, but others are active participants in the life of their own parish community.
In many cases, survivors were forced by fear of the consequences to say nothing about what was done to them. They carried that burden secretly for many years. The sign of conversion they seek in the Church and in society is that their personal story of abuse would be heard and understood and respected for what it is. Many of them, very generously, want their experience to contribute to a Church which respects and protects children better in the future. I mention this because, in recent times, we have spoken a lot about the importance of listening and walking together in the community of the Church. The way we work as an institution is part of this conversion, but perhaps each one us, in our own personal journey of conversion could give some thought to the need for attentive and respectful listening to children, to vulnerable people and to survivors in the circumstances of our own lives.