About the Council
Who We AreThe Council consists of members who represent multiple disciplines and geographic areas. Its nine members are restorative mediation practitioners, theologians, attorneys, peacemakers, representatives of victim and offender organizations, and academics from higher education who collaborate on and promote a restorative mediation model and other healing options.
What We Do
The Restorative Justice Council advocates a victim-centered approach based on restorative justice principles for persons harmed by clergy/religious sexual abuse. We use mediation as a means to achieve for the victim an outcome which generally cannot be achieved through more conventional methods of litigation in the judicial system.
Who We Serve
We serve individual survivors of abuse as well as organizations which seek to make things right for victims, offenders, and local communities.
The Benefits We Provide
Our focus is on healing for child and adult abuse, exploitation, and harassment, as well as on accountability for the persons who create the harm. The healing can take the form of providing closure for the victim and an accountability by the offender (or institution). A restorative dialogue/mediation conference can provide a variety of things the victim surviver needs to sustain their future life, and these can include an apology, counseling, rituals for healing, information, and/or monetary compensation. Our benefits are holistic and do not focus on only a single aspect of victimization but instead we seek redress and healing for the entire person.