Small Steps: Hope, Healing, and Solidarity in Syracuse
Today, we are introducing a new regular feature on the Awake blog: Small Steps.
Awake often focuses on the ongoing problems related to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, because it’s important to name and understand these issues if we are going to create meaningful change. At the same time, we believe it’s important to highlight positive steps being taken—as signs of hope and as examples of what is possible.
Through Small Steps, we’ll highlight initiatives that we believe contribute to awakening, transformation, and healing. When we feature an individual, organization, or diocese, we don’t intend to imply that everything they do is without flaws or that their work is complete. We simply want to acknowledge a specific initiative that we believe offers something to learn from.
We recognize that there is still much work to be done, and these may only be small steps. But small steps matter.
Hope, Healing, and Solidarity (HHS) is an initiative that was formed by Catholics in central New York in 2023, with the goal of educating Catholics about grooming and sexual abuse in the Church, offering support for those affected by the abuse crisis and coverup, developing prevention strategies for grooming and sexual abuse in Catholic environments, and advocating for transformation of Church culture.
HHS is an independent coalition, but the group works in collaboration with the diocese of Syracuse to offer resources, presentations, and public events, including a healing service in April 2026 that Bishop Douglas J. Lucia participated in.
Michael Koplinka-Loehr, a survivor of abuse by a Catholic priest, is a co-facilitator of HHS (as well as a member of the Awake Leadership Team). He shared that HHS operates with the guiding principles of survivor leadership, human dignity, truth-telling and transparency, restorative justice, Catholic social teaching, and community solidarity.
“It has been a ‘lift under my wings’– as a survivor -- to have dedicated allies to work with, to diligently model programs and services which we hoped the diocese would find valuable and partner with us, if not adopt within their own structure,” Koplinka-Loehr said. “We were clear that remaining independent would give us healthy perspective to work with the diocese while at the same time seeking change on behalf of how the issues of sexual abuse by leaders in the Catholic church were being handled by the diocese.”
While HHS engages in monthly planning meetings and support groups online, in-person gatherings and learning opportunities are a key part of their offerings, Koplinka-Loehr said.
“People face pain and make change more easily through healthy and authentic relationships and in-person events, which allow for a greater depth of interpersonal interactions than any online offering can achieve,” he said. “We have priests and a nun involved in our group, parents and grandparents, a medical doctor and folks from many walks of life, all sharing as equals while learning together, working together, breaking bread together and taking time to celebrate together. All of this creates bonds of shared humanity which would be more difficult to achieve just through online contact.”
HHS will host four free, public educational events in October 2026 in the Syracuse area. Click here to find more information about dates, times, and locations as well as topics and speakers.
Koplinka-Loehr reflected that developing relationships with diocesan leadership and staff has been a priority for HHS because “relationships are the foundation of change.”
“We can transform our individual ‘gut responses’ to the horrors of the sexual impacts of the sexual abuse crisis, affecting every person in the pews and so many lives which have been touched by the secondary impacts of the lives of survivors—into long-term commitments for culture change within the church,” he said. “An independent body of good will, with skills, life experience and tenacity can add ‘leaven to the loaf’ of change, since we all have a role to play in inner transformation as well as organizational transformation. Onward, upward, inward and forward, accompanying each other in growth and ongoing learning—together, not in isolation. This can lead to steadfast progress toward true ‘Hope, Healing and Solidarity.’”
HHS has also begun working with neighboring New York dioceses to share best practices and resources, to help dioceses work with each other, Koplinka-Loehr shared.
“We have developed the start of a manual, so that what we have learned can ripple out from central upstate New York to other areas, which are moved to stay engaged with these challenges beyond bankruptcy settlements and stand-alone training, but truly change the hearts of the faithful from within, one relationship at a time, over the next generation and beyond.”
—Catherine Owers, Communications and Events Specialist
