The Archdiocese of Chicago’s 13th Annual Prayer Service for Child Abuse Prevention and Pinwheel Planting Will Take Place on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at the Healing Garden Located at Holy Family Parish in Chicago at 11 a.m.
Chicago, (April 23, 2024) – The Archdiocese of Chicago’s 13th annual prayer service for child abuse prevention and pinwheel planting will be held at 11 a.m., on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at the Healing Garden at Holy Family Parish, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago. The outdoor service will be led by Rev. Aaron Bohr, SJ. As part of the prayer service, students, staff, parishioners and community members will pray, sing, plant pinwheels and tie blue ribbons on to trees in the Healing Garden, both symbols of child safeguarding efforts.
The Healing Garden is a place dedicated to the healing, recovery and reconciliation of child abuse victims and their families and the larger Catholic Church community. It has served as the site where the community comes together each year during the month of April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
“In the Archdiocese of Chicago, we take seriously our responsibility for maintaining safe environments for our students and young people in our parishes, schools, and community, so they may grow and thrive freely,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. “There is much to pray for as we consider the many people who are hurting, the many who are struggling, and the many who suffer in fear and silence. Let us work and pray for the prevention of child abuse and all forms of violence against children and youth today, and every day of the year.”
Students from St. Ailbe School, Annunciata School, Northside Catholic Academy, St. Ignatius College Prep and St. Therese Chinese Catholic School will participate in the service that will include: Bohr, who is also a Chinese and social studies teacher at St. Ignatius College Prep, leading the opening prayer, reflection and closing prayer; Michael Hoffman, clergy abuse survivor, chairman of the Hope and Healing Committee for the archdiocese’s Office of the Protection of Children and Youth (OPCY) and member of St. Mary of the Woods Parish, offering the opening greeting; Superintendent of Catholic Schools Greg Richmond reading scripture; and students from St. Ignatius College Prep leading the prayers of the faithful.
“Abuse of children is facilitated by a culture of silence or a practice of willful blindness. The annual Pinwheels for Prevention Prayer Service helps to break the silence that surrounds childhood abuse in our society,” said Hoffman. “Together, children and adults plant pinwheels in the Healing Garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago, as a visual, public display of support for protecting all God’s children from any kind of harm. I extend special thanks to OPCY, the Office for Catholic Schools and St. Ignatius College Prep for their partnership with an abuse survivor. Together we can ensure no child suffers abuse or neglect.”
The Healing Garden was created by a committee of victim-survivors, diocesan priests and OPCY staff. Through the garden, many victim-survivors have been helped to heal, learn and grow from the abuse they suffered, freeing their spirits from fear, shame and judgement.
Efforts are underway to develop a National Healing Garden in Washington, D.C. to encourage reconciliation, healing and eventual freedom from the painful wounds of abuse. Victim-survivors of abuse from across the country, in relationship with the Church, are leading this effort. Hoffman serves as chairman of the National Healing Garden planning committee.
Hoffman adds, “The Healing Garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the events held there each year, served as a model for the National Healing Garden. The National Garden will make visible the U.S. Church’s permanent commitment to healing victims of clergy sexual abuse and to repairing the wounds of abuse in the Church.”
Through OPCY, schools and parishes provide age-appropriate, research-based training to children and youth enrolled in our schools and parish religious education programs to help them better recognize inappropriate behavior and understand how they should report it to trusted adults. More than 100,000 students receive safe environment training in Catholic school religious education classes annually.
