Abuse survivor after giving his testimony at synod’s penitential liturgy: ‘it helped me to be able to find compassion’

Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that when standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, he “was just trying to appeal” to church hierarchy, “to look deep inside and to change what needs to be changed and to realize the fundamental values of certain things that you cannot take for granted. And that was important for me.”

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