News & Updates
April 22, 2008.
St. Brendan's in Bellingham holds
firm against TAT
St. Brendan
Parish in Bellingham, MA, is one of
the 64 parishes in the Archdiocese
of Boston that has refused to
implement the TAT program.
Their pastor, Fr. David Mullen, has
been a tireless defender of the
children in his parish against the
affects of this program, despite
pressure from the Archdiocese.
St. Brendan has even implemented a
new, home-grown curriculum to shows
its support in protecting children
from sexual abuse, but it has been
deemed "non-compliant" by the Office
of Child Advocacy.
The parish has
been respectful but firm in its
position, and has written to the
Archbishop's office on numerous
occasions to express its disapproval
of the TAT program. Their
latest letter is very well
written and very informative. We
encourage other parishes to do the
same--in a respectful manner--and to
get in touch with St. Brendan Parish
if they can help.
April 10, 2008.
Boston Globe article
Michael Paulson
of the Boston Globe writes a
very informative article on TAT
today. His sources cite a
higher number of parishes that have
not implemented TAT, when he writes,
"By the archdiocese's own count, 64
of 295 parishes are not using
Talking About Touching." This
is higher than the 16 parishes we've
read in previous reports. It's
a very strong article in support of
those with concerns or issues with
Talking about Touching.
March 31, 2008. Archdiocese Releases Report on Assessing TAT
The Archdiocese
of Boston Office for Child Advocacy
has released their
Final Report on A Methodology for
Assessing the Effectiveness of RCAB
Programs for Child Protection and
Abuse Prevention. The 26-page
document is essentially an analysis
of what they have defined as the key
components for such abuse prevention
program. It includes the following:
- A "Literature Review" of the 3rd-party sources which speak to the
subject of matter, and in particular choosing, implementing, and evaluating
such programs
- Their "Methodology" for evaluating the program
- "Lessons Learned" from implementing their methodology
The appendices provide a list of the members of the subcommittee that
produced this document along with biographies of outside researchers that
contributed.
March 7, 2008. Patriot Ledger
article
Nancy Reardon of the Patriot
Ledger writes related story to
the previous day's article in the
Boston Globe. She interviewed
the Massachusetts Trust Fund, who
coordinates the training for the
Archdiocese of Boston and has been a
long-time advocate of TAT and
related programs.
March 6, 2008. WBZ-TV and Boston
Globe feature stories on TAT
compliance
The Talking About Touching
program gained some media attention
when it was announced that 16
parishes in the Archdiocese of
Boston were not in compliance with
the TAT program implementation.
The
WBZ article cites the
Boston Globe article (written by
Michael Paulson) that 16 parishes
have refused to implement TAT, 48
others have not implemented it
because of teacher turnover, and
that one percent of parents have
chose to have their children opt-out
of TAT. They do not list the
16 parishes that have refused to
implement TAT, but we are aware of
several of them, and support them in
any respectful protest and dialogue
they have with the Archdiocese.
November 28,
2006. Doctors oppose TAT program
The Catholic Medical Association
(CMA) has asked the US Bishops to
stop using TAT, in an
article posted on LifeSiteNews.
The CMA released its 55-page study
with much reliance on Church
documents.
|
