In 2013, Gina Barthel had distanced herself from the Church for six years because of her experience of clergy sexual abuse in New York — not because she didn’t want to practice her faith.
But her anxiety level was so high that simply stepping foot in a church caused her “a great deal of panic.”
Gina Barthel
As she began a slow return to the Church, she started listening to small snippets of Relevant Radio broadcasts, and on Dec. 9, 2013, she heard on her car radio the end of the Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, where Father Andrew Cozzens was being ordained a bishop. “I’m not sure what he said, but … it was very clear in my heart,” Barthel said. “I said to myself, ‘if anybody can help me come back to the Church and be able to live my faith more fully, it’s him.’”
Barthel emailed Bishop Cozzens explaining that she was a victim of clergy sexual abuse and wondering if he would meet with her just once. “I just had this strong conviction that this person can help me,” she said. He responded that day, saying “yes, absolutely,” that he’d be happy to meet with her. Barthel expected a one-time meeting, but the pair continued to meet monthly. “He’s walked with me ever since that first meeting,” she said.
One momentous meeting took place in 2014 when Barthel strongly desired to go to confession “like everybody else, like a normal Catholic,” but she was fragile emotionally and spiritually, with trust a big issue, and her anxiety “near paralyzing,” she said. Bishop Cozzens offered to meet her on a Sunday afternoon so she could go to confession.
Amid her fear, anxiety and tears that day, she told him she was wasting his time. Bishop Cozzens replied that she didn’t understand. He had prayed for her that morning and God showed him an image of the Good Shepherd, suggesting the story where Jesus talks about the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to find the one lost.
“He said, as a bishop, he typically has to be with the 99,” Barthel said. But that morning, as he was praying for her, the Lord spoke to his heart and said, “Today, I need you to go after that one, and that one is Gina,” she recalled him saying. “When he said that, I just burst into tears and it was so much bigger than Bishop Cozzens,” she said. “I felt so deeply the personal love of God, that God really cared about me personally, intimately. And he was reaching down from heaven to rescue me. And I think that was a really pivotal moment in my relationship with Bishop Cozzens, but even in my relationship with God.”
In the interview, Barthel also shares tips to help care for people who have come forward as survivors of sexual abuse. To hear those and the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. Nov. 26, 1 p.m. Nov. 27 and 2 p.m. Nov. 28 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. To hear previous interviews with Bishop Cozzens, go to PracticingCatholicShow.com and look for the playlist for Archbishop Hebda and Bishop Cozzens.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Lori Hannasch, director of pastoral care at St. John Neumann in Eagan, who discusses ways to help the homebound this holiday season, and Father Tom Margevicius, who discusses ways to stay connected to St. Joseph, as the Year of St Joseph comes to an end.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at
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