Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Big City Catholics, our diocesan podcast. I'm Bishop Robert Brennan, bishop of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens. And I have two people who are very important to the work of our diocese talking with me today. Mary Ellen Quinn is the director for the Office of the Protection of Children and Young People, and Elizabeth Harris is our victims assistance coordinator. We work as a team pretty closely, almost on a weekly basis, in regular conversation, then at times in particular projects. And this is a time with one of those projects, because in the coming week, we'll be offering our mass of hope and healing, a great tradition here in the Diocese of Brooklyn. And we'll have a chance to talk a little bit about that in a few moments. Why don't we begin as we do, with prayer? And during this month of October, I pray the prayer of Saint Francis. And it's so fitting. We're asking, lord, make me an instrument of your peace and of your healing. In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me so love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy, or divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: So, Mary Ellen, thank you for joining me today for this week's podcast. And we're going to talk a little bit about your important role. But you're not new to this office and to this work. You've been with us first as safe environment coordinator. How many years were you doing that?
[00:02:20] Speaker B: In total, 15 years. So I guess 13 years as a safe environment coordinator.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: And with that, you were doing a lot of our work in terms of our audit reports and our tier two's training and all of that. And I've asked you if you would take on the role of the director of the Office of Protection of Children and young people, and you were very gracious, very helpful to me. And we've been doing a lot of work on these things in these last couple of years.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: We have. We have. But it's good work and it's important work.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: It is important work, and we'll be honest here, a little bit humble, and say it's important work that came about as a result of a response to a crisis. But it's also something that we've learned is just a very important mindset that the church and society has to have that in all that we do, that we always have a vigilance about us, certain watchfulness. Would you explain to us what the office does and how it affects the life of our parishes and institutions?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: So the office is responsible for overseeing safety of children and adults, more so, children and young people. We offer training to adults to recognize signs of abuse in the predators. So if you see someone who's acting a little off or maybe getting too friendly with the children or something, you would voice it. And also in children, if you see that there's a child that's acting differently and there's no reason for it, then that would also be something that would be concern. And through the training, we ask people to recognize those signs. We teach them how to recognize those signs, and we offer them ways of how to report. So that's all the training we do. We also run background searches on everyone. And you have everyone submit a code of conduct, which is pretty much our rules to live by.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: And that's become really important for us. It's become important for us to have those code of conduct because we have agreed upon this is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we act. And some of it should be self evident, but sometimes these things need to be spelt out. But one of the things I've discovered over these past 20 some odd years now is that the material we use, so, for example, the virtus training and the virtus bulletins do more than just help us in the work that we do in the church. They really have been raising the awareness of what's out there in the world. It can be a great tool for parents. It can be a great tool just for us to see what's going on, not just when we're volunteering or working in this particular setting, but just in general, what's out there in the world.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: The world has evolved so much because of the Internet and how easily the children can access the Internet, that we need everyone to be vigilant. And our code of conduct has changed due to that, to include electronic communication with children. They need to know what they should and shouldn't be doing.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: And really, I can speak for myself. There's a whole world that I'm just not familiar with. Somebody has to educate me on what's even available out there. What's even happening? And so these things, these bulletins are giving us an awareness of the reality of the world around us and the way that bad people use it for bad ends.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So now we've gone into this gaming situation where the children are playing games electronically with people they don't even know, and predators are working those games to.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Draw children things that seem so innocent enough, and yet they can just be so, so harmful. You know, it's sad. It's very sad. In some ways, I think it's gotta be hard to be a parent these days, hard to be a child these days. In a sense, children seem to have that innocence just robbed from them because you have to live in this society.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: And again, we too, as church, have learned that we have to be ever vigilant, and anyone who ministers, whether it be clerical priests and deacons, whether it be religious or volunteers or staff people. So we had to become very, very vigilant. And I have to say, thank God for all the good people who step forward. I remember when we first introduced this, it's sort of like saying, all the good people, please step forward. And I'm willing to have a background check. I'm willing to do this training. So when you think about all the people who've had this education over these 20 years, thousands and thousands of people, it has to be a good thing for society in general. That certain kind of an awareness, that certain kind of looking at things. I know if I could be a little light hearted for a minute. Sometimes I look at movies, old movies, and I say, oh, no, no, that would never be allowed today.
Even if it's not something really, really bad, it's just that you sit and say, oh, no, you can never do that.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: It causes you to have that keen awareness.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: That's right. So, Elizabeth Harris is our victims assistance coordinator, and I'm glad to have you here. You joined the team a little more recently in the last two years since I've been here. And boy, am I ever glad that you came aboard. Thank you for your expertise and for the great work that you've been doing.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Thank you. It's been a blessing to be a part of the diocese and to be in this role where I get to help any of our survivors, past survivors, but also to help educate the children today in our schools and our religious ed programs about how to keep themselves safe, how to have an awareness around them and what to do if they don't feel safe, or what to do if something happens to them. We hope that nothing happens to our children, but we're here for them and we educate them as well as our teachers and our staff. We've taken on a new mandated reporter training that we've offered to all of our new teachers. And I come around to the different schools and talk to the teachers about mandated reporting and how important it is that when they see something, they have to say something. The utmost priority of all of us is to keep our kids safe in the diocese.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: That's very important. And you bring some experience as a former New York City police officer, police detective, working with special victims.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Yes. I spent almost 22 years with the police department and twelve years in the Manhattan Child abuse squad, where I investigated cases of physical and sexual abuse of kids and adolescents. So I'm familiar with the work, and I'm happy to bring the experience from investigating the cases here, because part of.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Investigating the cases, especially in this particular field, is accompanying, is walking with the victims at the time, accompanying them through that whole process to be the first steps, if you will, of finding hope and healing. But now you're taking that experience and bringing it to the survivors of abuse to accompany it again, right? That's one of your main jobs, to accompany them.
[00:09:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. To be their advocate and accompany them through the trauma of what has happened, and just as much as we can to be there for them and offer hope and healing, solidarity, and that we just wanna make them feel okay again.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Right. And that's not an easy task. It's easy for anybody to say, feel better again, to feel okay again. And maybe in that process of healing, just to know that, well, I'm not alone. And the survivors of abuse, sometimes a wider circle involves family members as well. The harm that's gone is very widespread.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: It is, it is, and it's sad. And we just want people to know that we're here with them and that we recognize that everyone's journey is different. And we will do what we can to meet them on their journey and help them through it.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: It's so important. Everybody's journey is different, and yet at the same time, there's something we can do being in solidarity with one another. So we're getting ready. This coming week, we're going to be offering our annual mass for hope and healing. You do a lot of the work preparing for it. Would you talk about that a little bit?
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Sure. So this year's mass of hope and healing will be taking place on Thursday, October 24. It'll be at St. Pancras Church in Glendale. This year, we're doing a bilingual mass so that we can reach a larger audience. We have our readings and songs selected. Some of the survivors that we work with help us to do that. We like hearing their input on what they would like to see at a mass. So we're really hoping that people will come out and celebrate with us. And some people come, and I, we don't know that they're survivors, and they don't have to come forward and tell us that they are. They're welcome to, but we just want them to know there's a community that's there for them and wants to be of solace to them.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: And so in a sense, this broad invitation, what we're doing is we want certainly to invite anybody who's suffered abuse of any kind in any setting, whether it be a church setting, a family setting, in any setting. But at the same time, we want to be together as a community. So we want to invite the larger community so that we can be together to say to one another in a very silent but powerful way, we're in solidarity with one another. You don't stand alone. So we're really reaching out to our parishioners in Queens and in Brooklyn. Anybody who wants to be with us to pray, to stand in solidarity, you're very, very welcome. It's not that it's limited to those who've suffered abuse, but to the wider community.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: So we also want to let anyone know who cannot attend the mass physically. Maybe it's too hard for them to go into a church or they're geographically can't get there. It will be televised on net tv that evening, and then it'll be played again a few times after that. You can either get it online or through your tv station if you get net tv, but it will be available.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: We want to have that wide distribution. We want people to be connected to us somehow or another. You know, Mary Ellen, we're in a period right now of doing renewal. As we said at the beginning, there are always new challenges. And while we've always maintained the monthly bulletins, the ongoing training, we are doing something of a recertification. What are some of the things that are happening now?
[00:12:35] Speaker B: So, as we've spoken about on prior podcasts, the attorney general agreement that you've got gone into for the diocese has changed some of the things we're going to be doing and for the good, we are going to be strengthening our processes. So priests and deacons and candidates for ordination will be taking extra training on boundaries. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback. They've already started and it's been very good, very interesting. Some of the feedback we get, they appreciate that everything is being spelled out for them. So that's really nice. We're also strengthening the language in our codes of conduct. They've been reviewed by the attorney general's office, and we've had some back and forth to strengthen the language so that it's not, you should do this, you must do this. We've been enforcing more training so that when people's training is over seven years, we're going to have them do an online training again. So that's always good. We have a lot of updates coming down the road.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I know that the priest, because I got mine while I was away last week on retreat, and I saw the email come in that now there's a new session in our virtuous training session. So in addition to the monthly bulletins is a retraining, as you say, an online retraining. And that's a good thing. I'll confess. I just got back yesterday. So on Friday, the day this airs, I'll be doing my training.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: There you go. And the priests have just been so gracious and so kind to us to participate and to be agreeable to it. So it's, it's got to be hard for them because this has been a long time, 20 years post charter, and, you know, we're still talking about this and their priesthood have changed, but they also understand that we're never going back to that. And I think that's the positive message that they're committed to moving forward with us.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And, you know, when you think about it, 25 years. For some of our priests, that's a lifetime as a priest. You know, so some of our priests have known only this. This has been their experience. And so we're grateful to all the priests who really do take this very, very seriously. You say this new training includes new areas. It's not just honing up on those skills, but, you know, life in 2024 is different than life in 2004 for many, many different reasons. And it's another reason why it's not going away. It's not just that we're living in this, oh, we're paying for the past sins, but really we're also recognizing the more we learn, the more other people are learning, and the more technology develops, the more tools other people have. And so we have to be constantly aware to the evolution, if you will, in the world.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: And they are learning how to communicate in this new world as well. And they need assistance in navigating the right ways to do it, because some of the older priests are not up on all the electronic communication, so they're getting some help with that, too.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: And I was going to say that it's great when they don't know the answers, that they reach out to us. They give us a call and say, how do I navigate this? How can you help me through this? Or we have a situation here, and we always say we welcome those calls.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: That's incredibly important. Nobody should be out there trying to figure it out. And even we'd say, in terms of things like mandated reporting, if you have a question, give us a call. But probably the answer's going to be report it.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: I say that all the time, that if you call me, the answer, 99% of the time is going to be reported.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: And let's just talk about that a little bit. Not just the need to report, but the way to report. So the diocese instituted more than 20 years ago this reporting line. So explain exactly what that means and what somebody should do if they suspect abuse or if they want to report something that's happened to them.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Right. So if they themselves are a victim of abuse by a clergy member in the diocese, a staff member, a teacher, faculty, they can call the reporting line. They can call that in. There's an attorney who mans that phone to take all the information down, and that information is sent to members of the staff here at the diocese, including the corresponding district attorney. So the district attorney will weigh in on that. If it is a case that can be investigated at this time, if it has not reached the statute of limitations, if they have determined that they cannot take the case, it has reached the statute of limitations. We, the diocese, will conduct our own investigation, but we always allow law enforcement to do what they need to do first, and we never get in their way. Then we'll send that to our investigators, who we use here in the diocese to conduct the investigation, speak to everyone, speak to the victim themselves first, and any of the corroborating witnesses.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: And so that reporting line is the best way, actually, to make known.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: To make us aware that something's happened.
[00:17:34] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: In addition to that, though, you're starting something new, right?
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Yes. So now we have just instituted an online reporting form that can be accessed through the Diocese of Brooklyn website. If someone doesn't want to talk on the phone, if it strikes them to do this beyond office hours, they can certainly get online in the privacy of their home and submit a claim.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: That way back to the reporting line, the phone line. If somebody needs to report an incidence of abuse, we ask them to call.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: What number they can call. 1888-6344 and that number is also found.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: On our diocesan website. Also, most parishes should have it, too. That's a commitment we made. So any parish website or any parish material. But you can go to the Diocese of Brooklyn webpage. That's dioceseofbrooklyn.org. and then when you go to the.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: Homepage, you can go to the heading of protecting our children and then go down to report sexual abuse. The diocesan reporting line will come up on that, that 888 number. And then there is also the online submission form. So if someone doesn't want to speak to someone on the phone, they could submit their allegation through the online reporting.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: That's great. That's very important. And then in addition to that, you have a phone number so that people can come to you for assistance, so that they're not walking this journey alone.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: Right. So anytime someone reports on our reporting line, my job is to reach out to them and offer assistance to hear their story, if that's what they want to do. Sometimes people just call and they just want someone to listen to them. I'm there to do that, but I'm also there to offer guidance and support on any of the resources that we have through the diocese. So I'll walk them through that and tell them about what's available to them. But then I give them my phone number and say, I'm now your advocate. I'm here to assist you at any point of this journey that you may need something. If you've got a question, if there's something else you recall, please feel free to call. And I give them my cell phone number.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: That's important information. And I thank both of you. Elizabeth and Mary Elle, I thank you for the work that you're doing here. And I look forward to our being together on Thursday night for the mass of hope and healing. Once again, it's at Thursday, October 24, at 07:00 at St. Pancras Church in Glendale, queens, and also at the same time on Net tv. Thank you both for being here today, and thank you for listening in on big city Catholics. Every once in a while, we have to take up a pretty important topic, and today was one of those days. And I'm so glad that you were with us to listen, to see this as an important part of who we are and what we do, because we do care about the young people who we serve. And really, all of our families. Let's close by asking God's blessing. The Lord be with you and with you, spirit. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and your families remain with you forever and ever. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful week. Please pray with and for us in these coming days and know that I'm praying with and for you. Look forward to joining you again for another edition of big CD Catholics next week.
