Abuse survivor Michael Hoffman writes that Chicago, Illinois, archdiocese’s Healing Garden reflects accountability and healing

Michael Hoffman, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, writes that he was abused by his priest as a child. He says the priest had groomed the North Shore community he belonged to, earning and then betraying the trust of the children in his care and of their parents. Hoffman kept the secret for more than three decades. Twenty years ago, he opened a newspaper to find his abuser named in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of young boys years earlier. He says that day was emotionally and physically distressing, and that he soon shared his history with his wife.

Hoffman describes his healing as slow and not linear. He says it began when people he trusted met his story with love, compassion and belief, including his wife, his priest and officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where he started the Independent Review Board process. Reporting the abuse to the church was painful, he writes, but it was also deeply healing. Being believed mattered most to him. It showed him that faith and the church could remain part of his journey, and that seeking accountability did not require him to turn away from either.

Fifteen years ago, Hoffman helped spearhead the creation of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Healing Garden, a collaboration between the church and survivors. He describes it as a place of healing, including for people who can no longer enter a church, and as a public statement that survivors are believed, valued and welcomed. Each year, survivors gather in the garden before the Mass of Hope and Healing for abuse survivors and family members. This year’s Mass took place last month and marked the garden’s 15th anniversary. The garden is also shown in an April photo accompanying the column, where adults and children hold blue pinwheels, the national symbol of child abuse and neglect prevention, at the annual child abuse prevention prayer service.

Hoffman writes that the Chicago garden has inspired a planned National Healing Garden on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He says he is leading that effort with fellow abuse survivors so that their voices continue to be heard. He describes the planned garden as a place for individual reflection and prayer, and for community programming meant to rebuild trust in the church and in institutions fractured by abuse, and to start conversations about protecting the dignity and safety of children.

Hoffman addresses why he has stayed in the faith and why he and his wife raised their children in the church. He writes that when he watched his own children serve as altar servers, he felt joy that they could have the dignified experience he was denied. He also says he feels gratitude that survivors who came forward, breaking the silence around childhood abuse, may have helped prevent abuse in the next generation, a commitment to guarding vulnerable children (Mark 9:42).

Hoffman distinguishes institutional accountability from personal healing. He writes that, in keeping with archdiocesan policies, his abuser’s name is public, which he calls an important acknowledgment of the evil committed. He adds that he remains a deeply wounded person, that his abuse will always be part of him, and that his healing will be lifelong. He says he has found comfort in people willing to listen, leaders willing to work alongside him and a sense of faith guiding him.

Hoffman chairs the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Hope and Healing Committee and is executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative. The Chicago resident previously served as president of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois.

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