March 18, 2015 – Excerpted from “Put Out Into the Deep,” Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Over the course of my ten years as Bishop of Brooklyn, I have been meeting with survivors of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. Each encounter is heart wrenching for me, as their bishop, to listen to their stories and to apologize in the name of the Church, and to offer my own personal support for their journey towards healing. On April 15, our Diocese will take another step in the healing process, when a Mass of Hope and Healing is offered at 7 p.m at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. James in Downtown Brooklyn.

This type of Mass has been celebrated in other dioceses, and the survivors, themselves, have asked that we do the same. Our Diocese of Brooklyn is committed to the spiritual and emotional well-being of victims who become survivors, and what an important way to begin with this focus group of survivors who have shared with us what would be meaningful to them.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.