A survivor speaks, introduced by new independent CSSA Chair
15 January 2025
Introduction from CSSA independent Chair, Mike Cunningham
I feel really pleased and honoured to have joined the CSSA as its new independent Chair. I want to be here, I want to listen, and I want to contribute towards a safer Catholic Church.
I recognise that the CSSA has worked hard to drive-up standards, and of course there remains much to do. We have never been more aware of the acute need to help ensure safe environments.
Last week we saw, and heard, the very public debate about abuse, about our shared responsibilities in preventing it, across a spectrum of institutions.
What we didn’t hear so much of was the voice of those who have been affected. With that in mind, for my first message as CSSA Chair, I would like to simply hand over to one of the survivors with whom we work, for their comments.
On behalf of the Board, I will be sharing news of CSSA’s work plans in 2025 and beyond. But I can’t think of a more appropriate way to start that work than hearing Michael’s words:
From Michael:
My story was one of the testimonials heard, and reported on, as part of the IICSA report by Professor Alexis Jay. I am a survivor of abuse in the Catholic Church setting.
I believe a part of my brain was changed when I was abused as a child, as is the case for so many other survivors. I live with that every day. You can’t always see it, but I can always feel it.
People use the word ‘triggering’ quite widely these days. In my case, when I was hearing last week the headlines about IICSA, and other contexts of child abuse or safeguarding, I was actually triggered. In other words, my trauma came back to me. Like many other survivors, when these topics come out of the blue, they can take you to places in your mind you don’t want to be. Everyone reacts differently.
I know of other boys from my childhood who would have got the help they needed if mandatory reporting were in place, then. This was just one of my thoughts last week. That is why we must not let go of what the report tells us.
When I hear debates such as the current one about whether or not there should be a new national inquiry into abuse, personally I agree there should be another. We need a deeper investigation into the abuse crisis today, I believe. But what I’m not hearing is what has become of the 20 recommendations from the IICSA report. These need to be acted on, and now, otherwise what has it all been for?
Abuse in organisations and institutions are like a cancer. Any institution which uses its power and access to harm others needs to have this cancer cut out.
I want what happened to me to never happen to anyone else. That’s why I work to help prevent children and vulnerable people being manipulated and abused.
As survivors, we need to be asked what we think, we need to be able to help. Because we have experience that others can learn from, and because we know how it feels like to be silenced.
Michael, survivor
ENDS