…what I do.
These young women deserve to be remembered and are entitled to have a voice even beyond the grave. I watched the story of Audrie Pott, eerily similar to Rehtaeh Pasons, on the Today Show this morning and realized I couldn’t stop being a voice especially in this day and age when it seems the world is becoming so desensitized.
I was encouraged this afternoon when Fr. Gavin Vaverek, Miguel Prats and I met with Bishop Sheltz from the Galveston-Houston Diocese and within a few minutes of learning about the Maria Goretti Network and the positive message we support for survivors of abuse Bishop Sheltz offered to add it to an agenda for a meeting he has tomorrow morning. In this meeting select priests in the Diocese and the Bishop go over important issues within the Diocese and determine what needs to come to the Cardinal’s attention.
Our goal – to get more Maria Goretti Network chapters throughout the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. Please, pray for the meeting that is tomorrow morning.
On my lunch break before I left to have this meeting with Bishop Sheltz I watched the latest Good Wife episode that aired last night (4/14/13). The plot was about a young woman who had a similar story compared to the two young women above. In this fictional case the authorities did not carry through with the charges just as in these cases however, they show the young woman fighting back by taking the main perpetrator to civil court. In the show there was a gag order on the case and she broke it by tweeting the ‘alleged’ perpetrator raped her. Her truth. She was then held in contempt of court for breaking the gag order. In order for her to get out of jail she would have to submit an apology but she told her lawyer (paraphrased) “If I submit an apology that is what will be on record, that I was ‘sorry for calling him a rapist’ but I am not sorry for saying what is true. He raped me and I have a right to say it.” Spoiler alert… There was more drama and twists and turns to this episode but in the end the investigative team of the law firm finds the original taped interview of the young man being asked the night of the ‘alleged’ crime by the police “Did she consent to having sex?” and the young man said, “No, not really.” She was vindicated and heard. These programs aren’t always the best in the ‘messages’ they have but for this one I give them an “A” for bringing to the forefront this scenario of these assaults that are being thrown about social media and then used to bully the victims.
It must end this sensationalism of violence and dominance. And then I come home from my son’s baseball game to hear about the Boston Marathon bombings.
Heartbreaking. 🙁
My prayers are for all the victims and the thousands of secondary victims who were there to cheer on the runners and who are now dealing with the aftermath of their world being literally shaken from comfort into disarray. And I think of whomever planned out this spectacle…what affected them in life that would cause such a reaction? Yes I pray for
Blessings
Shannon