Day of Prayer for Victims of Abuse 2025

In 2016, Pope Francis announced that the Church would hold a worldwide day of prayer for survivors of clerical abuse. He wrote to lay Catholics urging them to be close to abuse victims, and pray and fast in reparation for the “atrocities” survivors had endured.

The Pope wrote: “’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… perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. “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… The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain.”

In England and Wales this day is observed on Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter, this year 20th May. Resources produced by the Bishops Conference Secretariat are available at https://www.cbcew.org.uk/national-day-of-prayer-for survivors-of-abuse-2025/.

In June 2023 Bishop Peter inaugurated St. Winefride’s Shrine and Well as a place of prayer and healing for the victims of sexual harassment, abuse and violence, drawing on the story of Winefride, who was a teenage victim of sexual harassment and violence and who found healing and new life in the actions of her uncle, the priest Beuno.

The Shrine is offered as a place of healing, hope, peace and forgiveness for all those whose lives are blighted by the outrage of sexual attack of any kind.

The Shrine is open throughout the day (10.00a.m. to 4.00p.m.) and there will be short services at 12 noon and again at 3 o’clock to pray with and for those whose lives have been affected in any way by sexual abuse.