October 14, 2016

CHICAGO CATHOLICS IN DV MINISTRIES

By Rev. Charles Dahm, O.P. I have been preaching about domestic violence during Sunday services for eight years, visiting close to 90 parishes at least once. The Archdiocese of Chicago Domestic Violence Outreach (ACDVO) now includes ministries at 75 of about 350 parishes in the Chicago area. When I started visiting parishes, occasionally a priest would push back, usually because he did not understand the dynamics of domestic violence. Sometimes priests resist the idea of my sermon and a DV ministry because they think it is not a big problem or talking about DV will be controversial. Typically, there are two or three...

October 2, 2015

The Too Perfect Guy

“The Perfect Guy,” starring Sanaa Latham, Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut, is about domestic violence. Instead of approaching the subject of DV as something that can happen to anyone, it focuses exploring how a tough, strong, successful woman can become a victim so quickly. The woman bears all the responsibility. First, she allows the Perfect Guy into her life. Then she lets him hurt her. This is a classic example of how society views domestic abuse: Blame the victim. One-in-three women and one-in-seven men experience violence from intimate partners. Many abusive relationships start out as too good to be true. The National...

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