When St. Bernadette Church in Baldwin Hills was deciding where its healing garden would be located at the parish, Deacon Jim Carper said the original thinking was to put it near the convent at the back of the property.
But to really convey the importance of the garden as a place for victims of abuse to find some measure of healing, it needed to be more prominent than that.
So up it went, near the entrance to the church on the corner of Don Felipe and Marlton, visible by walking or driving by.
“While we didn’t have a marching band, we certainly placed the monument in a conspicuous place,” said Carper, parish life director at St. Bernadette. “It’s created conversation without confrontation.”
The garden at St. Bernadette (Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region) was one of the five gardens installed in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in each of the pastoral regions. The other four healing gardens are located at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ventura (Santa Barbara Pastoral Region), St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman Oaks (San Fernando Pastoral Region), Our Lady of Refuge Church in Long Beach (San Pedro Pastoral Region), and St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care in East LA (San Gabriel Pastoral Region Region).
As National Child Abuse Prevention Month gets underway this April, the healing gardens at the five parishes — plus an “unofficial” healing garden at Old Mission Santa Inés in Solvang — represent the prayerful side to the fight against abuse.
Father Michael Wakefield, pastor at St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman Oaks, said he doesn’t always know if the people who have visited the garden are abuse victims, but many have come to him with “pain” and “tears” in their eyes.
“Just telling me kind of quietly, ‘This is so beautiful. This is lovely and I’m so happy that it’s here,’ ” Wakefield said.
Wakefield also likes to bring students from the parish school to explain why the garden is there.
“It’s a reminder that even in Christ’s holy Church, there were people that would do terrible things,” Wakefield said. “This is a small way for us to say to those people that were traumatized and victimized how terribly sorry we are, and no, it wasn’t your fault. No, it should not have happened to you, and that we hope that you will find in this place of quiet and serenity some semblance of peace.”
To mark National Child Abuse Prevention Month, the archdiocese’s Victims Assistance Ministry office plans to send prayer cards with flower seeds to each of the parishes with healing gardens.
Carper believes the healing gardens are an important way to underscore the steps the Church has taken to make children safer and teach people “to keep their eyes on the prize, which is our kids, the future of our Church.”
Carper said the garden is making a difference even outside of the parish community. When a prominent member of the Baldwin Hills community walked by recently, Carper said she stopped to remark on the garden.
“Her response when she walked by was, ‘Good for you,’ ” he said. “And then there was a pause and she said, ‘Good for us.’ And I thought that statement was powerful, good for you, but good for us, meaning the community.”
For more information on abuse prevention and protecting children, visit the Office of Safeguard the Children at lacatholics.org/safeguard.
Source: Angelus News