A new crop of silver and blue pinwheels bloomed under a cloudless blue sky April 25 at the Healing Garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago, next to the Church of the Holy Family, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road.

The pinwheels symbolize childhood innocence and fun, and are used as an emblem of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which is observed each April.

For the 13th year, the garden was the site of the “Pinwheels for Prevention” prayer service. The garden was created by a group of victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse of minors and the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth to be a place of reconciliation, hope and healing for victim-survivors, their families and loved ones, and the whole Catholic Church.

“In the Archdiocese of Chicago, we take seriously our responsibility for maintaining safe environments for our students and young people in our parishes, schools, and community, so they may grow and thrive freely,” said Cardinal Cupich, in a statement announcing the service. “There is much to pray for as we consider the many people who are hurting, the many who are struggling, and the many who suffer in fear and silence. Let us work and pray for the prevention of child abuse and all forms of violence against children and youth today, and every day of the year.”

Michael Hoffman, who chairs the archdiocese’s Hope and Healing Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the garden, spoke to students from Annunciata, St. Therese Chinese Catholic and St. Ailbe schools and St. Ignatius College Prep, who assembled for the service. The service was a collaboration of the Office of Catholic Schools and St. Ignatius.

Hoffman told them his story of abuse by a priest, a man who was a very good friend of his parents, starting when he was 12 years old, and explained that he kept it a secret because he didn’t think his parents would believe him, that they were more likely to think he was a bad boy for saying such things about their friend.

Now, after 20 years of safe environment training of all archdiocesan clergy, staff members and volunteers, children can have confidence that if they tell a safe adult about abuse, they will be believed and cared for, Hoffman said.

“If someone does something bad to you, or if something bad happens to your body, tell a teacher, your parents, your principal, a priest or a police officer,” Hoffman said, noting that the safe environment training given to children in Catholic schools and religious education programs gives children explicit permission to disclose abuse. “They will believe you and they will help you, so that you may flourish and you may grow and you may become the human being that God intended you to be.”

Nelly Bonilla, interim director of OPCY, said the importance of safe adults cannot be downplayed.

“Children’s lives can be positively changed and even saved by aware and safe adults,” she said. “You might ask yourself, ‘Who is a safe adult?’”

Safe adults are grown-ups with whom “you don’t feel nervous or scared or have an icky feeling in your stomach,” she said. “A safe adult will never ask you to keep a secret.”

After Catholic schools Superintendent Greg Richmond read a passage from Second Corinthians about the comfort and compassion offered by God, Jesuit Father Aaron Bohr offered a reflection and urged the children and teenagers to look to those around them for support and comfort.

“The Lord is the father of compassion and the father of all comfort,” said Bohr, who teaches Chinese and social studies at St. Ignatius. “When we are faced with difficult times and scary situations, it’s difficult to know who to go to for comfort. Take a few seconds to look around you, at your friends, your teachers … these are people you can go to. … St. Paul says we should look to the helpers, look to those people in your life who are helping you. We exhibit God’s compassion, God’s comfort, when times are difficult.”

Hoffman told participants that soon there could be similar services held in a national Healing Garden being planned for Washington, D.C.

“The Healing Garden of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the events held there each year, served as a model for the National Healing Garden,” Hoffman said. “The national garden will make visible the U.S. church’s permanent commitment to healing victims of clergy sexual abuse and to repairing the wounds of abuse in the church.”