The Healing Garden
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The Story of the Healing Garden
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The Healing Garden was created by a committee of victims-survivors diocesan priests, and staff from the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth (OPCY) and approved by Francis Cardinal George, OMI. The garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago is intended to be a place that invites reconciliation, hope and healing, not only for survivors and their families, but also for the larger Catholic Church. It’s through the garden that many victims/survivors have been able to heal, learn and grow from the events they’ve suffered, freeing their spirits from fear, shame and judgement.
Since the garden’s dedication on June 9, 2011, the committee has hosted an annual Mass for Hope and Healing and annual pinwheel planting prayer service to support Child Abuse Prevention Month. Every year hundreds of children, high school students, teachers, clergy, and families attend the prayer service in the garden. In 2013, the Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Assistance Ministry, Black Catholics, Peace and Justice and Catholics for Non-Violence came together at the Healing Garden to seek solutions to violence using Gospel non-violence.
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The Healing Garden will continue to support programs that call attention to healing for victims/survivors and their families, as well as those who promote child abuse prevention efforts.You have the right to report your story, and we are here to help, listen and connect you to the right services. To ensure the best resources and investigation practices are engaged, we encourage all allegations concerning the abuse and/or neglect of minors be reported to the DCFS Hotline (1-800-25-ABUSE) and/or the local police department first before reaching out to the Office of the Protection of Children and Youth (OPCY). If you need to report historical abuse, please contact OPCY at 312.534.5254.
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The Symbol of the Pinwheels
Pinwheels have existed for thousands of years. They are often seen as childhood toys and recognized as symbols of childhood innocence. The Chinese and other cultures have used the pinwheel as a symbol of turning from the old to the new, from bad luck to good fortune. The wind would turn the pinwheel, casting out the bad and replacing it with the good. During times of slavery, pinwheels were often woven into blankets symbolizing the hope of slaves to move from slavery to freedom. Most recently, pinwheels have been used in a worldwide movement to fight against child labor and to promote peace.
We gather with pinwheels to symbolize the innocence of youth and to express our desire that every child be safe wherever they are. All too often, many children and teens in our culture suffer abuse. Physical, verbal and sexual abuse can rob a child of their innocence and threaten their human dignity.
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The pinwheels we planted symbolize all of those children who have been, or are at risk of, being hurt by adults in their life. We pray that, as the wind turns the pinwheels that our prayer, united with the free-flowing Spirit of God, will help reassure all children that we will support them in their healing. We promise to continue working to ensure that every child will be safe, loved and cared for in a way that affirms their dignity as a child made in the image and likeness of God.
It is the Spirit of God, often symbolized as a mighty yet gentle wind, that will help blow away the pain and the hurt, the fears and the tears of all children or teens who have been hurt by an adult. It is the Spirit of God, that mighty wind, that will move us to defend the dignity and protect the lives of all children and youth who God has entrusted to our care.
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