Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
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December 1, 2020
Most Reverend Chad W. Zielinski
Bishop of Fairbanks
1316 Peger Road
Fairbanks, AK 99709Dear Bishop Zielinski:
We are writing to inform you that the Diocese of Fairbanks is in compliance with the data collection
requirements for the 2019/2020 Charter audit period. We have reviewed this information and will be
forwarding the documents to the Secretariat of Youth and Child Protection for use in the 2020 Audit
Report.Thank you for your cooperation and for participating in the data collection process.
Sincerely,
StoneBridge Business Partners
Rochester, New YorkFile: 20201201-Stonebridge.pdf
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Office of the Bishop
3 November 2018
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
As discussion increases across the United States about the abuse crisis in the Church, there continues to be frustration over failed leadership, cover-ups, and lack of oversight. The faithful in our diocese are asking, “Where are we in this process? What is happening?” To answer these questions, it may be helpful to review our history with regards to sexual abuse, as well as our ongoing actions to prevent further abuse against children and vulnerable adults.
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Recent History
In March 2010, the Diocese of Fairbanks emerged from bankruptcy brought on by allegations of sexual abuse. The bankruptcy resulted in a reorganization of our diocese. Part of that included posting on our website the names of all individuals against whom a complaint of corporal punishment or sexual abuse had been filed by one or more individuals. This included priests, religious, lay employees, and volunteers—in short, anyone associated with the Church. The list includes admitted, proven, or credibly-accused perpetrators of corporal punishment or sexual abuse. You may view this list at bit.ly/DOFList.
Today, the diocese has a wholly responsive and transparent process for handling any abuse claims. In 2014, for example, a diocesan employee discovered explicit photos of minors on a priest’s computer. The diocese immediately contacted law enforcement and assisted fully in the investigation. The priest was convicted in Federal Court, and is now incarcerated and in the process of being laicized.
The Diocese of Fairbanks unequivocally condemns abuse of any kind, for abuse violates the dignity of the human person. We take claims of abuse seriously, turn over evidence to law enforcement immediately, and cooperate fully with investigations of abuse. We also offer to assist survivors in any way possible to help them move toward justice and healing.
Ongoing Actions
Care for Abuse Survivors
- The diocese continues to offer compassion, guidance, and counseling to anyone who reports abuse. Our Victim Assistance Coordinator welcomes phone calls or visits from survivors. Please call 907-374-9516 to report abuse.
- Most of our past abuse cases took place in rural Alaska. To assist with healing in these communities, faith leaders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region recently began an Intercultural Dialogue group. Our rural Catholics insist healing must be led by the native people themselves and the diocese is committed to supporting local initiatives that facilitate healing. Three parishes have already participated in Pathway to Hope, a community-based program that uses an indigenous framework for healing from sexual abuse.
Safeguards Against Abuse
- Safe Environment Training—Since January 1991, the diocese has conducted mandatory Safe Environment Training for all Church personnel and volunteers who work near minors and vulnerable adults. This training includes actions and policies used to prevent sexual abuse, identifying signs of sexual abuse, and the actions that should be taken if abuse is suspected. This training continues to be a requirement and individuals must renew their training every five years. The diocese maintains documentation of completed training and background checks for its annual audit, which is conducted by an independent agency. Our most recent audit was completed August 30, 2018, and was found to be compliant. It is most critical that our parishes ensure all volunteers and employees complete this mandatory training.
- Safe Environment Review Board—This board consists of men and women with expertise in counseling, criminal investigation, law enforcement, and legal counsel, as well as priests and representatives from our native Alaskan community. The board meets semi-annually to review and update our policies as needed. It will meet at a moment’s notice for any allegation of sexual abuse. These cases are immediately reported to local law enforcement authorities.
Formation and Support of Clergy/Religious
- Three years ago, I implemented quarterly Spiritual Formation Days for clergy and religious. We also meet annually with the other two Alaskan dioceses for a Convocation in Anchorage. Clerical and lay experts lead presentations and discussions about safe environment, professional boundaries, and living a healthy celibate life. In addition, priests and religious gather about every four weeks in their respective regions for professional and spiritual development.
- The diocese conducts two retreats annually for deacons—one for road system deacons around Fairbanks and one for men serving in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Regional coordinators also conduct ongoing spiritual formation of deacons throughout the year.
- In September, I implemented a Priest and Religious Review Board. The board is currently comprised of three priests, a male religious person, a female religious person, a permanent deacon, a Native Alaskan woman, and two married couples. Any new incoming priest or religious will be asked to meet with the board, whose members will make a recommendation either for or against acceptance of the new priest to the bishop.
- The greatest support to a priest or religious comes from a family interacting with that person outside the parish. The witness of holy and healthy marriages encourages and supports holy and healthy clergy and religious. We are blessed to have many groups that reach out to support our clergy, religious, and seminarians.
Seminarian Review and Formation
- The diocese recently formed a Seminarian Review Board comprised of the Vocations Director and several married couples. Once a man has made a formal application to begin seminary, he will be interviewed by the board, which will then make a recommendation to the bishop.
- Once accepted, our seminarians are constantly evaluated throughout formation. For three decades, seminarians have undergone extensive evaluations by an independent psychologist as part of their formation. They must meet with a spiritual director and formation directors monthly. Lay and clerical professors have direct input on their annual evaluations. Additionally, pastoral staff with whom the seminarians work in their various field assignments also offer feedback to the diocese. Overall, seminarians are evaluated by numerous individuals on the four pillars of priestly formation: human, pastoral, spiritual, and intellectual. Lengthy reports are sent to the bishop and Vocation Director.
- Seminarians are required to complete an intensive, 8-week spiritual formation course at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska. They also must participate in a Pastoral Year formation in a parish in our diocese. This provides hands-on experience for the seminarian and further opportunity to discern a call to the priesthood. It also provides direct interaction with the faithful, who are encouraged to pray for them and support them in their journey. The faithful’s feedback to their pastor or the diocesan Vocation Director about a seminarian is always welcome.
Spiritual Focus on Healing
- I have dedicated October 7, 2018 through October 7, 2019 to the Mother of God. I ask that we, as the people of God, turn to the Blessed Mother in more focused prayer, asking her to help us draw closer to her Son as our Church grows in holiness.
- I invite parishioners to join me, clergy, and the religious of our diocese in fasting and doing a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament each Friday during the next year. This fasting, prayer, and penance is in reparation for sins of sexual abuse committed by bishops, priests, and religious. In fact, we will be promoting a series of devotions over the next year centered on this intention.
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During my travels as a bishop, I have publicly apologized for the grave abuses of Church personnel that have left horrible wounds in people’s souls. I also have apologized for ethnic abuse directed at our Native Alaskan brothers and sisters from priests and religious in the past. I am grateful we now understand the importance of sharing the Gospel in culturally-affirmative ways.
As I talk with the priests and religious who serve in our 46 parishes in northern Alaska, I am amazed at the ongoing accompaniment they so often offer to the survivors of abuse. I have witnessed our priests and religious compassionately walk with these souls, and give them hope and healing that they are still a most beautiful child of God.
We can never do enough to make reparation for the sins of abuse caused to minors and vulnerable adults. Together as a Church, may we continue to pray, fast, and do penance for our Church to grow in holiness. Above all, may we turn to the Mother of God to help us be a more faithful disciple of her Son, whose grace can bring encouragement and healing to those who carry these wounds.
Sincerely in Christ,
†Most Reverend Chad W. Zielinski
Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
Diocese of Fairbanks
CWZ/las
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The Holy See
“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.
1. If one member suffers…
In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years. Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims. We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away. The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he
has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite.
With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them. I make my own the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger when, during the Way of the Cross composed for Good Friday 2005, he identified with the cry of pain of so many victims and exclaimed: “How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency!
Christ’s betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison – Lord, save us! (cf. Mt 8:25)” (Ninth Station).2. … all suffer together with it
The extent and the gravity of all that has happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive and communal way. While it is important and necessary on every journey of conversion to acknowledge the truth of what has happened, in itself this is not enough. Today we are challenged as the People of God to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in their flesh and in their spirit. If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history. And this in an environment where conflicts, tensions and above all the victims of every type of abuse can encounter an outstretched hand to protect them and rescue them from their pain (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 228). Such solidarity demands that we in turn condemn whatever endangers the integrity of any person. A solidarity that summons us to fight all forms of corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14)” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 165). Saint Paul’s exhortation to suffer with those who suffer is the best antidote against all our attempts to repeat the words of Cain: “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen 4:9).
I am conscious of the effort and work being carried out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable. We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.
Together with those efforts, every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and
social change that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does. For as Saint John Paul II liked to say: “If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he wished to be identified” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 49). To see things as the Lord does, to be where the Lord wants us to be, to experience a conversion of heart in his presence. To do so, prayer and penance will help. I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting, following the Lord’s command.[1] This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says “never again” to every form of abuse.
It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.[2] This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.[3] Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism.
It is always helpful to remember that “in salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in the human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 6). Consequently, the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within. Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change. The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion. In this way, we will come up with actions that can generate resources attuned to the Gospel. For “whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 11).
It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion.
Likewise, penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils. May fasting and prayer open our ears to the hushed pain felt by children, young people and the disabled. A fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience.
In this way, we can show clearly our calling to be “a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race” (Lumen Gentium, 1).
“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it”, said Saint Paul. By an attitude of prayer and penance, we will become attuned as individuals and as a community to this exhortation, so that we may grow in the gift of compassion, in justice, prevention and reparation. Mary chose to stand at the foot of her Son’s cross. She did so unhesitatingly, standing firmly by Jesus’ side. In this way, she reveals the way she lived her entire life. When we experience the desolation caused by these ecclesial wounds, we will do well, with Mary, “to insist more upon prayer”, seeking to grow all the more in love and fidelity to the Church (SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, Spiritual Exercises, 319). She, the first of the disciples, teaches all of us as disciples how we are to halt before the sufferings of the innocent, without excuses or cowardice. To look to Mary is to discover the model of a true follower of Christ.
May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before these crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them.
Vatican City, 20 August 2018
FRANCIS[1] “But this kind [of demon] does not come out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt 17:21).
[2] Cf. Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in Chile (31 May 2018).
[3] Letter to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (19 March 2016).
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Encountering Jesus: The Bread of Life
Dear Brothers & Sisters in the Lord’s Vineyard,
I write to you as the Shepherd of the Diocese of Fairbanks with a very profound sadness in my heart as more information surfaces regarding abuse in our Church by Church personnel; but more than anything I am most saddened by the cover up and lack of oversight by Church personnel and leaders. Please see the statement given 27 August from Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the USCCB at http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-143.cfm.
As more and more information surfaces in the Church, we must continue to pray for spiritual conversion and healing of the Church through penance, prayer and fasting. As we gathered in Fairbanks for Spiritual Formation Days, 21-23 Aug, we had a very successful day of prayer, fasting and penance on 21 August. All parishioners of the Road System parishes were invited to participate in a midday Mass at the Cathedral which was filled. Also, from 8am-5pm we had exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet prayed throughout the day. We received many positive responses from participants to continue this. Pat Tam created a powerful Prayer Service that was used throughout the Y-K Region that received great support. Many participants were supportive and encouraged more days of prayer in the future.
There is a longstanding tradition within the Church to invoke the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel when we feel the Church is being attacked by evil. At the end of the Mass on 21 August, I invited everyone to kneel and together we prayed the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. There were many positive comments asking us to pray this prayer throughout the Diocese of Fairbanks. I am asking the Prayer to St. Michael to be prayed at the end of every Mass and Communion Service in the Diocese of Fairbanks. We turn to St. Michael asking for his intercession to be protected from the evil one as we draw closer to Christ through the Sacraments of the Church.
We will gather on 6-8 November for Spiritual Formation Days. So, on Tuesday, 6 November, we will have the entire day dedicated to penance, fasting and prayer. I have asked Fr. Robert Fath to organize these Spiritual Formation Days. He will send out something in the next week or so asking all parishes to participate in some way in this day of prayer, fasting and penance. If you have materials that were used or ideas, please send them along to Fr. Fath who will forward them to the three regions in the diocese.
This past Sunday we concluded John 6, The Bread of Life Discourse, and I find this to be a most fitting guidance for our Diocese and the Church at large. I fully realize that many of the good people of God are frustrated, exhausted with patience, angered, lacking trust with Church leadership. I put myself in this category but also have accountability to Christ the Good Shepherd as the Shepherd of the Diocese of Fairbanks. I truly believe that Jesus is confronting us with the question He presented to his own disciples in the Gospel this past Sunday, “Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” At this moment in the Church, we must turn more intensely to Jesus Christ in the Holy Mass who comes to us as the Bread of Life. As disciples of Christ, we must surrender everything to Jesus. We need to encounter Him “most intimately” in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which is the “source and summit of the Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11).
As the Shepherd of the Diocese of Fairbanks, it stings my heart to realize that many of our parishes are only able to participate in Mass every 6-8 weeks. As I tell this story during my Mission Appeal trips, I meet many people after Mass who express their amazement and concern. Recently, I received a very sizeable check from a couple in San Diego to cover the entire salary of a priest for one year so those in our remote villages can participate in Mass more frequently.
So, I want to personally thank all our priests, religious and lay ministers serving in our remote villages for the many sacrifices they make. I am appealing to our priests to make every effort and sacrifice to increase your presence in the various remote parishes to specifically offer the Mass. I fully realize this will increase expenses. People are being very generous to us for this single reason, so I will find and provide the needed monies for travel. I am convinced that drawing closer to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist at Mass, and encountering Him most intimately as the Bread of Life, will bring us more closely united as a diocese as the Mystical Body of Christ. It is through our worship at Mass, reception of the Holy Eucharist, regular confession, prayer, fasting and penance that spiritual conversion will come to our Church.
I am most grateful to each person and family for the sacrifices they take on for spiritual conversion and healing of our Church.
Sincerely in Christ,
†Most Reverend Chad W. Zielinski
Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
Diocese of Fairbanks
File: Encountering-Jesus-The-Bread-of-Life-28-August-2018.pdf
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APOSTOLIC LETTER
ISSUED MOTU PROPRIOBY THE SUPREME PONTIFF
FRANCISa) delicts against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue consisting of:
ii. performing sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person;
§2. For the purposes of these norms,
Art. 2 – Reception of reports and data protection
§5. Information can also be acquired ex officio.
Art. 4 – Protection of the person submitting the report
a) welcomed, listened to and supported, including through provision of specific services;
b) offered spiritual assistance;
Art. 6 – Subjective scope of application
a) Cardinals, Patriarchs, Bishops and Legates of the Roman Pontiff;
- the Congregation for the Oriental Churches;
- the Congregation for Bishops;
- the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples;
- the Congregation for the Clergy;
- the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Art. 8 – Procedure applicable in the event of a report concerning a Bishop of the Latin Church
Art. 9 – Procedure applicable to Bishops of Eastern Catholic Churches
Art. 10 – Initial duties of the Metropolitan
Art. 11 – Entrusting the investigation to a person other than the Metropolitan
Art. 12 – Carrying out the investigation
a) collects relevant information regarding the facts;
c) obtains the cooperation of other Ordinaries or Hierarchs whenever necessary;
§7. The person under investigation enjoys the presumption of innocence.
Art. 13 – Involvement of qualified persons
§2. The Metropolitan, however, is free to choose other equally qualified persons.
§4. The persons assisting the Metropolitan shall take an oath to fulfil their charge properly.
Art. 14 – Duration of the investigation
Art. 15 - Precautionary measures
Art. 16 – Establishment of a fund
Art. 17 – Transmission of the documents and the votum
Art. 19 – Compliance with state laws
The present norms are approved ad experimentum for three years.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 7 May 2019, the seventh year of my Pontificate.
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OFFICE OF THE BISHOP
16 March 2020
Nationwide Service to Report Sexual Misconduct Involving U.S. Bishops
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In May 2019, Pope Francis released his apostolic letter, Vos estis lux mundi (“You are the light of the world”) to address the issue of sexual abuse by bishops and major superiors and their accountability in the global Catholic Church. One month after Pope Francis issued his order, the bishops of the United States convened for their general assembly in Baltimore and approved the implementation plan for carrying out the directives of the Holy Father here in the United States.
As part of this ongoing commitment to carrying out Vos estis lux mundi, the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service (CBAR) was established. The service is operated by Convercent, Inc. an independent, third-party entity that provides intake services to private institutions for reports of sensitive topics such as sexual harassment through a secure, confidential, and professional platform. For more information on the reporting service and how it works, please visit: ReportBishopAbuse.org.
This Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting service allows for individuals to relay to Church authorities any reports of a U.S. Catholic bishop who has:
• Engaged in Sexual Misconduct against Canon Law and/or Civil Law
• Engaged in Sexual Misconduct against a minor or vulnerable adult
• Or who has intentionally interfered with a civil or church investigation into allegations of sexual abuse committed by another cleric, religious or someone representing the churchTo make a report, individuals may go to ReportBishopAbuse.org. Reports are also accepted by calling (800) 276-1562.
In addition to reporting any allegations against a U.S. Catholic Bishop through the CBAR service, those making a report through this system are also encouraged to report the allegation directly to law enforcement. Reports received by the CBAR which meet criminal law standards will be reported to the local enforcement by the Archdiocese.
The Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service (CBAR) does not replace existing reporting systems for complaints against priests, deacons, religious or laity, but is an expansion of processes already in place. If anyone has been sexually abused by someone representing the Church and has not yet reported the abuse, please consider disclosing what happened to you. The best way to do so is to report to your local law enforcement agency. You may also contact the Diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator by calling 907-750-1132 and we will do our best to help you and assist with reporting to law enforcement.
While the mandate by Pope Francis in Vos estis lux mundi echoes many of the practices that the Catholic Church in the United States has already implemented since 2002 with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, this new order applies to the bishops and to the worldwide Catholic Church, making clear the pope’s concern of the issue of sexual abuse in the Church at a global level. For additional information, please see the attached documents.
As we continue to work towards a safer environment for all the people of God, may we continue to pray for healing for victims abuse by Church personnel and for all who suffer at the hands of others.
Sincerely in Christ,
†Most Reverend Chad W. Zielinski
Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
Diocese of Fairbanks
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