Mission Statement
Catholics For Family Peace Education and Research on Domestic Abuse is an Initiative of the National Institute for the Family providing education, resources, and research that help Catholics promote peace within families and to recognize and respond with compassion to domestic abuse.
Our Vision: All families experience peace in their homes and respond with knowledge and compassion to domestic abuse, in accord with Gospel values.
Our Guiding Values
Our Objectives:
Our Vision: All families experience peace in their homes and respond with knowledge and compassion to domestic abuse, in accord with Gospel values.
Our Guiding Values
- Every person has innate human dignity.
- Men and women are equal in God’s eyes.
- God desires happiness, health, and peace for all people.
- Marriage and families are the foundations of society.
- Domestic abuse has no place in marriage or family.
- God’s mercy endures forever.
- People can change with God’s help.
Our Objectives:
- To inform the Catholic community on ways to promote family peace and to prevent and respond to domestic abuse.
- To provide resources and promote prayer to end domestic abuse.
- To promote the teachings of the Catholic Church on domestic abuse, as described in the USCCB's pastoral letter, When I Call for Help (2002), and other related documents.
- To work with Catholic clergy and lay leaders to promote an informed and compassionate response to domestic abuse.
- To conduct and encourage research on the relationship of faith and domestic abuse.
- To serve as a clearinghouse for effective pastoral practices of the universal Church that address domestic abuse.
- To collaborate with other faith-based and secular organizations that address domestic abuse and promote peaceful relationships.
National Work Group on the Coordinated Catholic Response to Domestic Abuse
Initial Statement of Purpose (October 2010 - April 2011)
We hope that all Catholic homes will be places of peace. We understand, however, that domestic violence is a serious, relatively hidden problem, widespread in American society (Note 1). It can be expressed in many forms: physical, sexual, financial, emotional, etc. While its rate of occurrence differs somewhat across a variety of categories e.g., race, gender, economic and educational status, and geographical location, domestic violence is present to a significant degree in every demographic group. Women are the victims far more often than men. Women are the victims in approximately 75 percent of homicides committed by a domestic partner (Note 2) and are the victims in 85 percent of non-lethal, physical domestic violence cases.(Note 3) Instances of domestic violence occur among members of all faith communities. It is present in the Catholic community. It touches the families of our parishioners. It affects the students in our schools. It is addressed by the Church’s social service activities.
Catholics For Family Peace will increase awareness within our community about the extent of domestic violence. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops addressed the issue strongly in their 1992 statement “When I Call for Help: a Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence against Women.” Ten years later, in the introduction to the anniversary edition of the statement, the bishops said “…we state as clearly and strongly as we can that violence against women, inside or outside the home, is never justified.” They issued a call “for a moral revolution to replace the culture of violence.” Catholics For Family Peace will work as a catalyst in bringing about this moral revolution first in our Church and then in our broader American community. We propose to do this in the following ways:
1. As we organize, we ask all people to pray for the end of domestic abuse. We ask for special prayers for the people affected directly by it: the victim and abuser; any child witnesses; the extended family and nearby community; and the people in the police and legal system who address the issue.
2. We will extend a special invitation to all people, especially men of honor and courage to work to end domestic violence. Domestic abuse is a family life issue. Men are affected deeply by this condition as it is oftentimes their daughters, sisters, nieces, and friends who are injured or killed due to domestic violence.
3. We will invite the American bishops, both as a group and as individuals, to continue their moral leadership on the issue of domestic violence. We will advocate for the education of clergy, lay parish leaders, school administrators and teachers, religious communities and others in diocesan and parish leadership. We have confidence that increased awareness and enhanced skills will enable ministers to serve an important role in front-line intervention and in educating lay Catholic about the issue. We will urge the integration of the topic into marriage preparation courses, youth ministry programming, and other parish initiatives.
4. We will invite those responsible for other large Catholic institutions to address the issue of domestic violence in ways appropriate to their own purpose. We will urge Catholic seminaries, for example, to make awareness of the issue a part of their pastoral curriculum. We will ask Catholic colleges and universities to be aware of the issue of dating violence and provide safe places of peace and reflection
for their students in need. We will urge Catholic campus ministers to make counselors at secular colleges and universities aware of Catholic teaching on these matters and assure them that victims of domestic violence will find safety at the Catholic Center. We will invite Catholic health care agencies to provide educational programming on the issue in their communities.
5. We will identify and share materials that make the Church’s teaching on domestic violence clear and accessible. We will provide and or share information about workshops, conference exhibits, lesson plans, homily guides and other materials designed to assist those in professional positions in dioceses, parishes, schools, seminaries, etc. in meeting their responsibilities in addressing the issue of domestic violence. Ultimately, we hope these materials touch all members of the Catholic community.
6. We will encourage research on domestic violence particularly as it relates to religion and we work to disseminate findings to those in authority in Church institutions. We seek to broaden knowledge and understanding of the root causes of domestic violence and to foster appropriate responses from the Catholic community.
7. We will serve as a clearinghouse for “best practices” regarding ministerial initiatives in preventing domestic violence in our Catholic communities and dealing with its aftermath. In this we serve, ultimately, all affected by the tragedy of domestic violence: victims, innocent witnesses, particularly children, and the abusers themselves.
8. We will maintain a website that provides an overview of all of our activities, invites communication and furthers our mission to promote healthy family values, moving toward that time when all Catholic homes will be places of peace.
9. We will collaborate with other religious and secular organizations working to end domestic violence.
___________________________
This is a copyrighted statement. January 17, 2012
1 CDC. National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NIPVS): 2010 Summary Report.
2 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2004, 2006.
3 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, 2003.
Note: An eleven person Work Group of Catholics met from November 2010-April 2011 to discuss how to prevent intimate partner violence and promote family peace. The Work Group included two priests as well as staff from the USCCB, three dioceses, Catholic Charities, National Council of Catholic Women, and researchers. The group decided to promote and implement the Bishop's Statement, "When I Call for Help" (see such www.usccb.org). They created a Statement of Purpose which serves as the foundation for the revised statement. Three members volunteered to form an Organizing Committee to implement the Statement. For more information, contact Sharon O'Brien, Ph.D., Chair - Organizing Committee at [email protected] or call her on 301.651.8190.
Catholics For Family Peace will increase awareness within our community about the extent of domestic violence. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops addressed the issue strongly in their 1992 statement “When I Call for Help: a Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence against Women.” Ten years later, in the introduction to the anniversary edition of the statement, the bishops said “…we state as clearly and strongly as we can that violence against women, inside or outside the home, is never justified.” They issued a call “for a moral revolution to replace the culture of violence.” Catholics For Family Peace will work as a catalyst in bringing about this moral revolution first in our Church and then in our broader American community. We propose to do this in the following ways:
1. As we organize, we ask all people to pray for the end of domestic abuse. We ask for special prayers for the people affected directly by it: the victim and abuser; any child witnesses; the extended family and nearby community; and the people in the police and legal system who address the issue.
2. We will extend a special invitation to all people, especially men of honor and courage to work to end domestic violence. Domestic abuse is a family life issue. Men are affected deeply by this condition as it is oftentimes their daughters, sisters, nieces, and friends who are injured or killed due to domestic violence.
3. We will invite the American bishops, both as a group and as individuals, to continue their moral leadership on the issue of domestic violence. We will advocate for the education of clergy, lay parish leaders, school administrators and teachers, religious communities and others in diocesan and parish leadership. We have confidence that increased awareness and enhanced skills will enable ministers to serve an important role in front-line intervention and in educating lay Catholic about the issue. We will urge the integration of the topic into marriage preparation courses, youth ministry programming, and other parish initiatives.
4. We will invite those responsible for other large Catholic institutions to address the issue of domestic violence in ways appropriate to their own purpose. We will urge Catholic seminaries, for example, to make awareness of the issue a part of their pastoral curriculum. We will ask Catholic colleges and universities to be aware of the issue of dating violence and provide safe places of peace and reflection
for their students in need. We will urge Catholic campus ministers to make counselors at secular colleges and universities aware of Catholic teaching on these matters and assure them that victims of domestic violence will find safety at the Catholic Center. We will invite Catholic health care agencies to provide educational programming on the issue in their communities.
5. We will identify and share materials that make the Church’s teaching on domestic violence clear and accessible. We will provide and or share information about workshops, conference exhibits, lesson plans, homily guides and other materials designed to assist those in professional positions in dioceses, parishes, schools, seminaries, etc. in meeting their responsibilities in addressing the issue of domestic violence. Ultimately, we hope these materials touch all members of the Catholic community.
6. We will encourage research on domestic violence particularly as it relates to religion and we work to disseminate findings to those in authority in Church institutions. We seek to broaden knowledge and understanding of the root causes of domestic violence and to foster appropriate responses from the Catholic community.
7. We will serve as a clearinghouse for “best practices” regarding ministerial initiatives in preventing domestic violence in our Catholic communities and dealing with its aftermath. In this we serve, ultimately, all affected by the tragedy of domestic violence: victims, innocent witnesses, particularly children, and the abusers themselves.
8. We will maintain a website that provides an overview of all of our activities, invites communication and furthers our mission to promote healthy family values, moving toward that time when all Catholic homes will be places of peace.
9. We will collaborate with other religious and secular organizations working to end domestic violence.
___________________________
This is a copyrighted statement. January 17, 2012
1 CDC. National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NIPVS): 2010 Summary Report.
2 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence in the U.S. 1993-2004, 2006.
3 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, 2003.
Note: An eleven person Work Group of Catholics met from November 2010-April 2011 to discuss how to prevent intimate partner violence and promote family peace. The Work Group included two priests as well as staff from the USCCB, three dioceses, Catholic Charities, National Council of Catholic Women, and researchers. The group decided to promote and implement the Bishop's Statement, "When I Call for Help" (see such www.usccb.org). They created a Statement of Purpose which serves as the foundation for the revised statement. Three members volunteered to form an Organizing Committee to implement the Statement. For more information, contact Sharon O'Brien, Ph.D., Chair - Organizing Committee at [email protected] or call her on 301.651.8190.