Rev. John ShusterSpiritual Counselor
Priest
Spiritual Counseling to Survivors of Abuse and Their Families
National Board Member Emeritus of The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
Co-coordinator Emeritus of the Seattle Chapter of SNAP
I am completing a new book that will be available on Kindle in the near future:
HEALING CHOICES FOR RECOVERY FROM ABUSE
A PERSONAL HEALING MODEL
Copyright
2016 (c) John Shuster
I will announce it on my Facebook page when it is available, then begin a series of YouTube video "fireside chats" to help individuals and their families better understand and implement the various steps of healing and personal/family renewal.
If you have been sexually assaulted by
clergy, religious, or a church employee,
it is never too late to find healing and
reclaim control of your life.
Begin here: SNAP - Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Your abuser(s) could be listed on this database: Bishop-Accountability.org
Wedding
Ceremonies: A referral for you
An increased number of people have asked me to walk
with them and their families as they begin to seek healing from the effects of
trauma and abuse in their lives. As a result, I have shifted my energies
away from wedding ministry and will now focus full time to help them find a path
of personal healing in their lives.
If you have visited my web site in search
of an officiant for your upcoming wedding,
I would like to refer you to my friend and colleague Rev. Bob Riler of Tacoma,
WA.
You may contact Bob and Marcia at
bobriler@gmail.com or (253) 566-4078.
My Personal Journey and Popular Essays
For a number of years, we married Roman Catholic priests were open to resuming ministry in the church if invited to return. The 2002 revelations of widespread sexual and financial corruption have left me and most married priests with no desire to resume ministry in a church that has so many outstanding sex crimes against children and vulnerable adults around the world.
I have dedicated my ministerial competencies and graduate theology degree to provide spiritual (not religious) counseling to survivors of abuse and their families. I have worked closely with The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests since 2002, serving on their board of directors and as a local SNAP representative here in the Seattle area.
The following essays provide useful information to the reader as well as a documentation of my thought processes and decisions that have moved me away from institutional religion to helping individuals build their relationship with themselves, with others and with God through Personal Spirituality.
The essay "Sexual Politics in the Priesthood" has been very well received over the years as an inside view of double lives in the priesthood and the corruption that drove me and 110,000 other priests out of the institutional Roman Catholic priesthood in the last 40 years. For more insight into the troubled clerical/religious culture we fled for the wholesomeness of married life, I suggest you view the recently released film SPOTLIGHT.
39 Popes Were Married!
Information from this essay was used in Deborah Norville's July 7th, 2004
MSNBC
special "Celibacy",
and HBO's "America Undercover: Celibacy" by Anthony Thomas which aired
on June 28, 2004.
Sexual
Politics in the Priesthood
I wrote this essay to Voice of the Faithful in the Fall of 2007.
Is Homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Priesthood connected to
clergy sexual abuse?
I gave this call-for-research presentation at the Society for the
Scientific Study of Religion in Louisville, KY on October 17, 2008.
Kristin Lombardi on the
Married Priesthood
With an introduction by Rev. Thomas Doyle, O.P.