Transforming Faith Into Social Impact

Denise Buchanan, Ph.D. , Founder, Faith Has Feet and Member of the Brave Movement As a Jamaican survivor of clergy sexual abuse, I write this not only from the place of deep personal pain, but from a position of global purpose. I am the Founder and CEO of Faith Has Feet, an international organization on a mission to create community-based solutions that combine grassroots advocacy, survivor leadership, and policy reform to safeguard children from sexual violence wherever they may live, learn, or worship. We are not only advocating but building avenues to justice, healing, and protection for every child. To date, we have 12,000 youth engaged in Nigeria on a mission to heal and end childhood sexual violence. World leaders will gather in Canada for the 2025 G7 Summit this June, amid immense global uncertainty. The agenda includes critical global priorities: peace and security, economic stability, climate change, digital transformation, and democracy. And yet, absent from this list is one of the most pervasive and devastating human rights violations of our time: child sexual violence. SEE MORE HERE 

I know that the Roman Catholic Church has failed historically to prevent and to root out child sexual violence within its own ranks. I am a Jamaican survivor of such abuse by a priest. Francis spent much of his papacy issuing apologies for clerical sex abuse . His successor must do more. The 135 cardinal electors must ensure the church’s next leader is committed to a public position of zero tolerance of abuse by any of its members. Though a 2021 update to canon law declared sexual abuse criminal and not merely a moral offense, it only imposes certain penalties “where the case calls for it.” The next pope must update canon law to adopt a zero-tolerance law given that sexual abuse is a grave crime against the life, dignity and freedom of victims. It must be applied without exception, and in sexual abuse cases, the church must release sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with these rules. He must establish an independent compliance agency to investigate, document and publicly identify people of authority in the church who contributed — through their negligence or intentional acts — to concealing abusive priests. This conclave must select a new pope with the commitment — and the record — to show he has never and will never tolerate the abuse of children within the church, nor the secrecy that enabled it. We need more than apologies; we need change. Read the full article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/06/francis-catholics-pope-trump-ai-vance/ Denise Buchanan, PhD. , Los AngelesThe writer is the CEO, Faith Has Feet, and a member of the Brave Movement.