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Article: Dialogues aim to foster healing within church.(MINISTRIES)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- January 25, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It worked in post-apartheid South Africa. It works for thousands of couples in bitter divorces. Can structured mediation and conflict resolution work to reconcile disaffected Catholics with the Catholic church? A group is trying it in Boston.
Last year, in Boston--the city that was at the epicenter of the clergy sexual abuse scandal and its cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy--the Paulist Center began a campaign to foster reconciliation between aggrieved Catholics and the Boston archdiocese. Last fall, Catholics and former Catholics sat down with Richard Erikson, the archdiocese's vicar general. They told their stories and attempted to arrive at understanding, not ...