Faithful will gather Saturday to pray for hope, healing during Child Abuse Prevention Month

During Child Abuse Prevention Month, the Archdiocese of Newark will hold a Hope and Healing Prayer Service on Saturday, April 27, at 9 a.m. at St. Joseph Church, in Oradell.

Father Christian Scalo, administrator of St. Joseph parish, will lead the faithful in prayer and Auxiliary Bishop Michael A. Saporito, D.D., Regional Bishop of Bergen County, will also attend. 

The service is the second the Department for the Protection of the Faithful has planned During Child Abuse Awareness Month. During last year’s service, Mark Joseph Williams, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and special advisor to Cardinal Joseph Tobin, shared his story. This year, the service will focus on prayer and music.

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“Father Christian Scalo, Administrator, St. Joseph parish, helped us to broaden our scope of how we can offer an opportunity for healing for those who wish to attend,” said Gina Criscuolo, LCSW, Coordinator, Office of Accompaniment.

With the broader invitation, the archdiocese is hoping to speak to and attract a broader audience for healing. 

“We are really trying to find the focus and the wording which would be most helpful to those in the pews and beyond,” Criscuolo said.

The prayer service is just one of many efforts led by the Archdiocese of Newark Department for the Protection of the Faithful throughout April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month. In its ongoing commitment to the ministry of protecting children from abuse, the department launched an awareness campaign, is sponsoring pinwheel gardens around Catholic school campuses, and created a Rosary for Healing video so the faithful can pray at home for the victims-survivors. 

The Archdiocese of Newark’s Department for the Protection of the Faithful teaches adults and children how to recognize, report, and prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The Virtus ® Empowering God’s Children program gives children in grades K–12 (both Catholic school students and faith formation students) tools to empower them to define and defend the boundaries they set with other children and adults, to be a safe friend to others, and to understand who the safe adults are in their lives. Over 27,245 children were trained in the past year alone.

Archdiocesan employees and volunteers, through the Virtus ® Protecting God’s Children workshop, are taught to see the signs of possible child sexual abuse and exploitation, and how to respond to, and report it. The seminar for adults is mandatory for all employees, clergy, and volunteers. Over the last two decades, over 100,000 adults have been trained by this program.

“Having both adults and children learn the same concepts helps us to provide ‘bookends’ for combating sexual abuse and the grooming activities that often precede it,” Karen Clark Director, Department for the Protection of the Faithful, said. “It truly ‘takes a village’ to recognize, respond to, and report child sexual abuse and exploitation.”

The Archdiocese of Newark is committed to helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse heal. Gina Criscuolo, the Coordinator of the Office of Accompaniment, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, provides compassionate and supportive assistance to those who have been harmed in the church. Please visit www.rcan.org and click protect and report in the menu or call 201-407-3256.

For more information on the Department for the Protection of the Faithful and its Empowering God’s Children program, visit rcan.org.