“Restorative justice for me starts at home,” Michael Hoffman said.
A member of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago, Hoffman said his primary act of recovery as a clergy abuse survivor happened in 2006.
He told his wife, Kathy, about the abuse after reading a Chicago Tribune article about his abuser that included the names of other children he knew at the time.
Hoffman said he came forward about 30 years after the abuse, which happened for four years starting when he was 12.
Hoffman, now 58, grappled with questions of, “Do I tell my wife? Is she going to think differently of me? Is she going to question who I am as her husband or who I am as a provider or father to our kids? I was anxious,” he said.
Her response of “compassion and love and understanding” was Hoffman’s “first moment of feeling heard and believed and treated well. And I cherish that moment.”
Now executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative (NCRJI), Hoffman works with a Twin Cities priest, Father Daniel Griffith, to advocate for abuse prevention and healing; “translating what great people, like Father Dan (Griffith) are doing, translating that into the real-life experience on the ground.”
Through his own work within, and outside, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Father Griffith sees the Catholic faith as not only complementing restorative justice but enhancing it. In the past decade, emerging restorative justice practices local Church leaders and laity have used to guide the archdiocese through pain on a path toward healing have become a model for other groups seeking to do the same.
Though restorative justice as a practice is not new, Father Griffith — pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and founding director of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing (IRJH) — said what is being newly explored is the alignment of these principles with the Catholic faith.
“This is where I’m absolutely convinced that this is God’s will, that restorative justice and healing so powerfully align with Catholic social teaching and the healing mission of Christ: In such a short time, we’ve been able to connect with all these groups nationally and now internationally where we’re just starting to see this confluence of, and a movement toward, this Catholic embrace of restorative justice,” Father Griffith said.
Restorative justice invites practitioners to respond to harm and encourage accountability and healing by accompanying people as they recount their experiences.
It’s an emerging area of expertise for Father Griffith.
He served as archdiocesan delegate for safe environment in 2013 and 2014, when he was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis. Discernment between Father Griffith and Archbishop Bernard Hebda led to the archbishop appointing Father Griffith in 2019 as archdiocesan liaison for restorative justice and healing, a role he continues to this day. Restorative Justice and Healing is a course among those he teaches at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis.
“I was just feeling this call to get into this work more formally,” Father Griffith said of his early discernment over restorative justice. “The Lord was really putting this on my heart.”
Local roots
Local restorative justice efforts sprang from the pain of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the archdiocese.
“We all lived through the (clergy) sexual abuse trauma,” said Janice Andersen, director of Christian life at the Basilica who helps support restorative justice efforts at the parish. “It just fractured our Church. … And the people, of course, who were directly impacted, it was incredibly traumatic.”
Susan Mulheron was part of an archdiocesan team that worked to address local harm.
“It was a deeply formative experience for all of us, very difficult and challenging,” said Mulheron, who was appointed as interim chancellor of canonical affairs in May 2013 and officially named to the position in September 2013. “Over the course of it, I think we all learned so much, bonded together, and I think that that really was helpful as the archdiocese moved through everything that was to come.”
From 2013 on, amid increasing claims of clergy abuse that spanned decades, the archdiocesan team began utilizing restorative justice principles in acknowledging the harm.
“Restorative justice calls us to recognize (the harm), value that person’s experience, and seek a way to address that harm,” Mulheron said. She said it’s a model of valuing the vulnerability of those harmed who come forward, as well as “valuing the responsibility of those in leadership to take that seriously.”
In May 2018, the archdiocese reached a settlement with a committee representing clergy abuse survivors, offering $210 million for restitution to 442 victims-survivors.
“I recognize that the abuse stole so much from you — your childhood, your innocence, your safety, your ability to trust, and in many cases, your faith,” Archbishop Hebda said to victims-survivors during a news conference to announce the settlement. “Relationships with family and friends, relationships in your parishes and communities were harmed. Lives were forever changed. The Church let you down, and I’m very sorry.”
Father Griffith said it was Ramsey County Attorney John Choi’s “master stroke to really push for restorative justice” through the settlement agreement with the archdiocese; in part, he said, requiring the archdiocese to convene a restorative justice and reconciliation conference for accountability and healing, and to select an independent ombudsperson to assist victims-survivors and their families.
To those ends, a restorative justice pilot program was implemented at the Basilica, Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove. Julie Craven, associate director of the IRJH, was named in February 2023 as ombudsperson for clerical sexual abuse within the archdiocese — a position filled by two predecessors: Tom Johnson, then Victoria Newcome Johnson.
The pilot program facilitated Father Griffith and Craven’s work using restorative justice principles; the program provided opportunities to talk about peripheral harm and explain what restorative justice is, Father Griffith said.
“After I was appointed liaison (for restorative justice and healing), we went out to different parishes,” Father Griffith said. “Sometimes I would preach at all the Masses and on restorative justice and then we would hold healing circles. And it was a time for people to just air what was on their heart and mind. … It gave them an opportunity to say, ‘All right, somebody’s listening.’”
“What Julie (Craven) and I have found is people are really moved and feel affirmed when somebody is there and the sole reason for being there is to listen and accompany,” Father Griffith said. “Victims-survivors will say that that’s deeply affirming and, in many cases, it was the opposite that occurred when they (first) told their story — they weren’t believed or, in some cases, blamed.”
Hoffman said that kind of experience can create additional harm — “feeling minimized or kicked to the corner — many other abuse survivors have had that experience.”
It’s the collective commitment to addressing harm that has made — and can make — a difference.
“It wasn’t just one person’s problem to solve,” Mulheron said, reflecting on her work with the archdiocesan group.
Archbishop Hebda — whom Pope Francis named as apostolic administrator in 2015, later naming him as archbishop — has been “so committed” to this effort, Father Griffith said.
“He’s been there, at the (healing) circles, he has been present,” Father Griffith said. “I’ve never seen a church minister more present in so many different settings.”
Father Griffith and Craven began taking their knowledge of restorative justice principles beyond the archdiocese — Duluth; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bismarck, North Dakota; San Antonio, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Wheeling, West Virginia, were among their visits.
Father Griffith said he vividly remembers, during the Duluth visit, a man saying to him about the Church, “Father, there cannot be restorative justice without accountability.”
Word began spreading about how restorative justice practices were assisting in healing a wounded Church, both Father Griffith and Craven said.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE DEFINED
“Restorative justice is a worldwide movement that seeks to respond to harm in a way that fosters accountability and healing,” the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing (IRJH) website states. “These practices are used successfully in a variety of settings and professions, including education and law. Restorative justice invites practitioners to enter the wound of another by accompanying them as they tell their stories. And it finds an able and potent partner when grounded in and informed by the Catholic intellectual tradition.”
“That really is what restorative justice is; it’s entering into somebody else’s story and their wound through accompanying, through active listening,” said Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and founding director of the IRJH. “When people are wounded, they’re yearning to be healed and accompanied.”
Father Griffith said “the link between restorative justice and the Catholic worldview, Catholic spirituality, is really strong because both are oriented to human flourishing and healing and justice.”
Susan Mulheron, chancellor of canonical affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said restorative justice is “such an appropriate way for the Church to approach dealing with harm in relationships. We’re a community, we’re a family.”
Janice Andersen, director of Christian life at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis who is involved in restorative justice programming through the parish, agreed that restorative justice “resonates so deeply with our Catholic social teaching, our faith; this whole idea of addressing harm and building community.”
“This is a tool that helps restore, that helps build community, that helps heal, and there’s so much division in our society and so many barriers to breaking through that this is … a gift from the Holy Spirit,” Andersen said.
Michael Hoffman, a clergy abuse survivor, a member of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago, and executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative, said restorative justice is about relationship.
“Heart to heart, human to human moments are what restorative justice is trying to get to,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hunter Johnson — son of Victoria Newcome Johnson, former ombudsperson for clerical sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — produced a documentary about restorative justice. The “Restorative Justice in the Catholic Church and Beyond” film can be found online.
A similar pattern
“It was interesting to see how word got out,” Craven said. “It didn’t take long before Catholic organizations, parishes (and) dioceses in other parts of the country knew that this work was happening in Minneapolis.”
When she and Father Griffith were asked to share programming at other locations, Craven said, “what we saw was a real similar pattern every time: There’s a situation, people kind of knew that something isn’t right, but they didn’t really do anything, charges were brought, bankruptcies were filed, and it broke the heart of the faithful.”
Father Griffith reflected on restorative justice programming in Wheeling in February 2020: “That diocese had been through a trifecta of harm and were really, really wounded and kind of bowed down. And people came to the first session, it was (on) Ash Wednesday, and it was so powerful. We thought nobody would show up, or a few people would show up, because … it was sleeting. And it was a packed room. One person, a mother of a seminarian, said to Julie (Craven): ‘We finally have hope.’”
Craven sees restorative justice as providing “the ‘now what?’ The ‘what are we going to do about it?’”
“We know from this work that nothing gets to sit — it has to be dealt with, it has to be named,” Craven said. Father Griffith agreed: “The harm that is not healed is dispersed.”
There is an ongoing need to heal this harm, Father Griffith and Craven said.
“We can almost tell now from the (news) headlines (from) where we’re going to get a call,” Craven said. “Because when there’s media coverage of something that’s just happened in a particular diocese … we can typically expect to hear from somebody in that diocese.”
When those calls do come in, she said they often include the questions of “‘How did you do it?’ ‘What did you do next?’ ‘How did you talk about it?’”
“I think we’re hoping we’ll get to the point where it doesn’t have to be a crisis,” Craven said.
‘HOPE FOR HEALING’
Michael Hoffman, executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative, said the support his wife, Kathy, showed him when he told her about the clergy abuse he went through helped him on his journey toward healing.
He then told the pastor of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago, his current parish. “He listened to me, and he heard me, and he believed me. And we talked for an hour and because that conversation was so good and went so well, and with his encouragement, soon after that, I felt comfortable enough to reach out to the Archdiocese of Chicago and I began the independent review board process.”
Through the review process — which took roughly 4 1/2 months — Hoffman said he felt heard, believed and respected. He met with the late Cardinal Francis Eugene George, who served as the archbishop of Chicago at the time. During their meeting, Hoffman explained how close of a friend his abuser was to his family growing up.
Hoffman said Cardinal George “thanked me for telling me and he apologized to me for the abuse that I endured. … I believe in this wholeheartedly: He apologized to me, but an apology doesn’t happen until the survivor accepts the apology. … And I looked into his heart, and he looked into mine and I accepted his apology. And there is restorative justice in that moment.”
Hoffman said the interactions he had while coming forward all contributed to acknowledging and repairing the harm he endured. “That’s restoration, that’s recalling and restoring your past. What should be a right relationship wasn’t a right relationship and now we’ve got to get it back to a right relationship,” he said.
“There is hope for healing. Healing is, in fact, possible and it is, in fact, happening,” Hoffman said. He said healing requires efforts from both the Church and from victims-survivors, just as Cardinal George apologized to Hoffman and Hoffman accepted the apology. “I think it’s a two-way street.”
Local, national and international initiatives and dialogue
The experiences and conversations Father Griffith and Craven had led to Father Griffith and his law school colleague Hank Shea proposing the IRJH to Rob Vischer — then-dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law, now president of the university — who supported the vision. Launched in 2021, the IRJH is grounded in Catholic tradition and the law school’s social justice mission in its efforts to teach students and members of the legal community how to implement restorative justice practices.
Mulheron, who is on the IRJH advisory board, described the initiative as a way to “institutionalize restorative processes.”
The same year the IRJH launched, roughly two dozen individuals — among them were victims-survivors of clergy abuse, restorative justice practitioners, psychologists, scholars, bishops, priests and deacons — met at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana; the following year, the meeting was held at the University of St. Thomas.
Out of those consultations — sponsored by a grant from the president’s office at the University of Notre Dame and with support from the University of St. Thomas School of Law — grew the NCRJI.
Father Griffith said consultation attendees talked about how to implement “a more robust truth and reconciliation process with regard to the harm of clergy abuse in the Church, including peripheral harm.”
Hoffman described his colleagues at the NCRJI as “a wonderful, wonderful group of people.”
Hoffman said that currently, members of the NCRJI are working on four proposals: Developing a national center with experts and practitioners to inform the Church on restorative justice practices, particularly healing circles; developing a national healing garden as a site of prayer and accompaniment for victims-survivors of clergy abuse as well as for broader Church healing; instituting an Annual Day of Prayer and Penance for Healing and Reconciliation for broader Church healing and for victims-survivors of clergy abuse; and leading trauma-informed training for clergy, seminarians, lay leaders and ministers, and parishes to be able to accompany victims-survivors.
Meanwhile, Father Griffith said his work as archdiocesan liaison for restorative justice and healing runs on a parallel track with the work of Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention with the archdiocesan Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment (MSSE).
“Paula (Kaempffer) has done a lot of work online during the (COVID-19) pandemic and a lot with victims-survivors,” Father Griffith said. Mulheron agreed, saying Kaempffer “does incredible work with her outreach.”
In a March 2023 interview with The Catholic Spirit, Kaempffer said people worldwide have attended MSSE-offered presentations from experts on topics geared toward victim-survivor healing, such as safety advocacy, trauma-informed care techniques, and creating a trauma-informed Church.
“I hear from people all over the country, I get emails from people after they’ve attended presentations thanking us at the diocese for putting these presentations on, for the work that we do with victims-survivors, for trainings that we do,” Kaempffer said at the time.
In addition to MSSE work garnering international interest, Father Griffith notes others from around the world have reached out to him and Craven regarding the restorative justice programming they lead.
“Somebody doing a dissertation on restorative justice in Israel reached out,” Father Griffith said.
He and Craven will also meet with “people who are doing international restorative justice work” in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Dublin ahead of a Northern Ireland and Scotland pilgrimage Father Griffith is leading in October.
PERSPECTIVE FROM A PARISH
Janice Andersen first learned of restorative justice’s principles “about 12 to 15 years ago” through the example of Mary Johnson-Roy.
“She went through a restorative justice process and actually met the man who murdered her son,” Andersen explained.
This encounter between Johnson-Roy and Oshea Israel in a Minnesota prison was the beginning of a story of forgiveness that spread globally. After Israel was released from prison, the two lived next door to each other in north Minneapolis.
Johnson-Roy established From Death to Life, an organization in north Minneapolis that brings together mothers, and some fathers, of children who were killed as well as those whose children had committed homicide.
“And they come together in support groups and prayer groups. It’s very powerful,” Andersen said.
Johnson-Roy and Israel also visited the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis — where Andersen has been the director of Christian life for more than 15 years — as guest speakers. For a time, Andersen said, the Basilica acted as a fiscal agent for From Death to Life “until we realized churches really shouldn’t be fiscal agents.”
The prayer and support Andersen witnessed via From Death to Life took root in her heart. She began participating in other restorative justice workshops facilitated by Kay Pranis — who served as restorative justice planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections — and by Basilica pastor Father Daniel Griffith and Julie Craven, ombudsperson for clerical sexual abuse within the archdiocese. Father Griffith is also the founding director and Craven is the associate director of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing.
“It was a way to bring my faith into action in a profound and new way,” Andersen said of what she learned.
The workshops covered the process of healing circles. Healing circles originated from Indigenous and First Nation peoples in North America, Australia and New Zealand with a focus on addressing harm. A talking piece is passed around the circle; while the person holding it speaks, the rest of the circle participants are to listen attentively and with care.
“Circles can be done to build community, they can address conflict, they can be spaces for healing, or they can support those impacted by a crime,” Andersen said. “It was very exciting to see this other way of justice that’s not really all about punishment, getting what you deserve, so to speak, but rather about making something right and restoring what has been destroyed and healing the wounds not only personally but with the community.”
Healing circles have taken place at the Basilica through different programs, Andersen said. Roughly 20 people have been trained as circle keepers. Andersen said she has helped logistically support the circles; then, “as we wanted to go maybe deeper, or broader or more bold, or just really use those more, I really felt I needed to have more training.”
In July, she traveled to Chicago with another Basilica parishioner who is also a retired social worker to participate in a four-day circle keeper training. The training was offered through a partnership between Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation — a Chicago-based nonprofit established by a group of priests from the Missionaries of the Precious Blood that aims to build community and promote conflict resolution through restorative justice principles — and Catholic Mobilizing Network — a Washington, D.C.-based organization that seeks to uphold the dignity of all life and end death penalty practices.
“We looked at the components of circle keeping that are important and how to do that well,” Andersen said of the training. Participating were “Christians, mostly Catholic, and some of us were from parishes as far as from New Orleans, as far as Virginia, and other people were part of faith-based community organizations.”
Andersen is relying on the training as the Basilica works to put together “a restorative justice team, if you will” that will “intentionally pray, learn, grow, discern: Where can this go at the Basilica and in our community?”
This team, Andersen said, will focus on “the scriptural foundations of restorative justice,” look at the current realities of justice in the modern world, and pray and discern: “Where are we called as a parish community to grow and how do we implement this?”
Talking about her experience with restorative justice and the potential she sees with its application, Andersen spoke quickly and occasionally interrupted her thought with a new one. “I’m excited,” she explained, “because I care so deeply about this.”
Restorative justice “is something that’s very hopeful,” Andersen said, that it “gives us tools to tangibly move forward in a way that will bear great fruit.”
Ongoing education
Upper-level law students are packing the Restorative Justice and Healing course offered at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Father Griffith and Craven said.
“They’re excited about (the concept that) there’s a different way to approach law,” Father Griffith said. “A lawyer can be a source of healing. That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to zealously advocate for your client. But you can do so also being mindful that your client walks in the door in some harmful situation and that you can listen, you can get some of the skills that restorative justice fosters and be a better lawyer.”
Father Griffith said restorative justice education encourages the development of what he calls “big-picture lawyers.”
“You can see this generation of lawyers being formed in a way that they’re going to be more humane, they’re going to be more compassionate, and they’re going to be more intricately healed because they’ve dealt with some of their own trauma. Students are being formed and they are owed … a lot of tools in their toolbox.”
Father Griffith added there are plans for 2025 to launch a restorative justice externship program for law students who have completed the course. Continuing education opportunities on the topic of restorative justice for interested lawyers are also in the works.
Mulheron sees the value of ongoing restorative justice education in practicing law — her experience in canon law has informed her perspective on how to use restorative justice principles to navigate conflict. Conflict resolution through a restorative justice lens, Mulheron said, is about “always looking for what is the real source for conflict — and it’s never about canon law. It’s always about the human experience and relationships.”
Mulheron said she has shared what she has learned about restorative justice in presentations that she has given to colleagues in canon law.
“In my work, I use that philosophy in everything I approach,” she said.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN MINNEAPOLIS
Washington, D.C.-based Catholic Mobilizing Network — which seeks to uphold the dignity of all life and end death penalty practices — and the Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing (IRJH) at the University of St. Thomas School of Law are co-hosting the National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice.
The conference is set for Oct. 5-7 and will be held in Minneapolis, primarily at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
With a theme of Journeying toward Restoration, the conference will specifically touch on the topics of “criminal legal system transformation,” “clergy sexual abuse and healing,” “racial injustice and healing,” and “harms against Native peoples,” according to the conference website.
Julie Craven, ombudsperson for clerical sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and associate director of the IRJH, said the conference will approach the topic of restorative justice “from different standpoints.”
“There’s really nothing else like this … that’s one of the exciting things about it,” Craven said.
Over two dozen experts in areas of advocacy, education, law and the Catholic Church will speak at the conference, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“It’s a great lineup of (speakers) and we’re excited about getting people in the same room together and inspired,” said Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and founding director of the IRJH.
Conference details and registration information can be found online.
‘Life-changing’ when properly implemented
“What has won me over … is restorative justice is incredibly effective,” Father Griffith said. “It’s adaptable, it can be used in multiple different ways and it’s consistent with human nature and the desire for healing.”
Mulheron agreed: “I’ve seen it be very successful. And by successful, I mean life-changing for people.”
However, “it’s not a panacea,” Father Griffith said. “It has to be really carefully discerned because it isn’t applicable in every setting.”
Mulheron emphasized that conditions must be right for restorative justice practices to be effective.
“You have to have all the right elements present,” she said. “When you’re missing one of those, it can make things worse. So, you have to be very careful with it.”
Restorative justice practices also require patience, Mulheron explained, particularly with preparatory work. “It can take a year to encounter this restorative process or longer. And you have to have that long-range view.”
“Survivors are in relationship with the Church; that’s that long-range view,” Hoffman said.
Ultimately, restoration is part of the Catholic faith.
“This type of work is the work of the Church; this is what the Church is about — reconciliation, healing wounds,” Mulheron said. “This is what it means to be Christ to others.”
FOUR NCRJI PROPOSALS
Michael Hoffman, executive director of the National Catholic Restorative Justice Initiative (NCRJI), said members of the NCRJI are currently working on four proposals, which are in different stages of development.
One proposal is developing a national healing garden as a site of prayer and accompaniment for victims-survivors of clergy abuse as well as for broader Church healing. The project has received funding and is in development with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and The Catholic University of America for inclusion on the university’s campus in Washington, D.C.
The national healing garden is meant to offer a “warm and welcoming and inviting” environment for those seeking healing outside of a church, archdiocesan building or pastoral center, said Hoffman, a member of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago who also helped develop a healing garden within the Archdiocese of Chicago. It’s also meant for “all survivors of any kind of abuse,” Hoffman said.
Prayer services, survivor-led healing circles and prayer vigils all “can, and should, happen” at the healing garden, Hoffman said.
“That’s where the healing comes — not just in simply having space, but utilizing the space as a resource,” Hoffman said.
The garden is expected to be completed and dedicated in 2025, Hoffman said.
A second proposal is instituting an Annual Day of Prayer and Penance for Healing and Reconciliation for broader Church healing and for victims-survivors of clergy abuse.
The day of prayer and penance has been implemented at the local level, within some archdioceses, Hoffman said. There is interest at the NCRJI in encouraging its recognition at the national level, which Hoffman acknowledges is “longer term; that takes time to get to the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) level.”
A third proposal is leading trauma-informed training for clergy, seminarians, lay leaders and ministers, and parishes to be able to accompany victims-survivors.
Hoffman said that work at the diocese level is ongoing, led in part by Father Daniel Griffith — pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and founding director of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing — who is a member of the NCRJI.
A fourth proposal is developing a national center with experts and practitioners to inform the Church on restorative justice practices, particularly healing circles.
Working on these proposals and with other members of the NCRJI, Hoffman said, is “healthy; it’s healing.”
