Diocese of Brooklyn’s New Victim Assistance Coordinator Brings Her ‘Deep Passion for Helping People’ to the Role

By Paula Katinas

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Elizabeth Harris, a retired detective who worked with thousands of sex abuse survivors during her NYPD career, has been named to two roles in the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Office of Protection of Children and Young People.

Harris’ journey began when she joined the NYPD in 1998. In her first few years, she served at the 17th Precinct in Manhattan. She then joined the Sex Offender Monitoring Unit, a squad responsible for handling convicted offenders who had served time in jail and were now free. Sex offenders are required by state law to register their home addresses with law enforcement authorities.

“I was tasked with interviewing, monitoring, and assessing, at that point, the over 5,000 registered sex offenders in the five boroughs,” Harris said.

While she felt her work was important, she longed to do more to help victims.

“I gained some skills there, but I really wanted to go and work with the victims and hear their stories first,” she said.

It’s something she believes she will be able to accomplish as victim assistance coordinator for the diocese. Harris is responsible for providing outreach and support to survivors of clergy sex abuse, including notifying them and their families of available services — like therapy and counseling sessions. “I’m really happy to be assisting survivors in any way that’s needed,” she said. “I’m just happy to do it.”

Her top priority, she said, is to put survivors first.

“I will do the best job I can for them,” Harris explained. “I will be there to listen to them with compassion and professionalism, whether I’m dealing with past victims or any possible new victims if that should occur.”

Although she only recently started the job, Harris has had time to gather some initial impressions.

“My biggest impression is how seriously Bishop Brennan takes the issue of sex abuse and how much he wants to help survivors,” she said. “It is so inspiring to work with him.”

Harris was also named the 1722 Supervisor in the Office of Protection of Children and Young People. In that role, she will monitor priests who have been removed from ministry. The number 1722 refers to a section of Canon Law related to the removal of priests.

As one of her first duties in her new roles, Harris will be attending the Mass of Hope and Healing, an annual liturgy for survivors of sexual abuse. This year’s Mass will take place on Thursday, Oct. 13, at Resurrection Ascension Parish in Rego Park. Harris is looking forward to the Mass principally because it will provide her with the opportunity to meet victims and their families.

“Sex abuse has a devastating effect on the victim’s family too, not just the victim,” she explained.

In some ways, the job of victim assistance coordinator has similarities to her role at the NYPD’s Manhattan Child Abuse Squad, where she served for 12 years — working with victims and families to ensure justice for them.

“Detective Harris brings a unique breadth of experience that will further enhance our efforts to protect the faithful with the strong, safe environment protocols we already have in place,” Bishop Robert Brennan said in a statement after the diocese announced her appointment on Sept. 30. “I am grateful she is now sharing her expertise with the diocese to assist us in this most important mission.”

Aside from her NYPD experience, there is another reason why Harris feels she is well suited to her new job. “I’m a product of the Diocese of Brooklyn,” she said.

Harris, who is married and lives on Long Island, grew up in Queens, attended St. Mary’s Nativity School in Flushing, and is a graduate of The Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica Estates.

She attended St. John’s University for one year and then transferred to the State University of New York at Oneonta because she wanted to experience living at college. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Child and Family Studies, intending to become a social worker.

Her Catholic faith and desire for service led her in a different direction. Through the Vincentian Fathers at St. John’s University, Harris joined a service organization that sent college graduates into low-income neighborhoods to teach in schools. She moved to Washington D.C., and taught for a year before returning to New York City to teach at St. Rita’s School in East New York.

Teaching wasn’t in her future, however. Instead, she followed a long-held dream of becoming a police detective. “It’s just something I always wanted to do as a child,” she recalled.

When she joined the Manhattan Child Abuse Squad, she found that her work brought her back to her college years and early career in education.

“I think my degree helped. And I think being a teacher helped —  just listening to kids and working with kids. I’m so grateful that I got to work with child victims,” Harris said.

She retired from the NYPD in January 2020. She then went to work for The Safe Center of Long Island, a program in Bethpage that helps survivors of physical and sexual abuse, before coming to work for the diocese.

In her new role as victim assistance coordinator, Harris takes over for Maryellen Quinn — director of the Office of Protection of Children and Young People — who was temporarily filling the role left vacant by the resignation of Jasmine Salazar in March.

“Elizabeth’s expertise will be an asset. … We are all very excited to have her on board,” Quinn said. “She is an extremely dedicated and compassionate woman who has already, in her short time in the diocese, made a difference.”

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 10/05/22

Family and friends say their final goodbyes to slain FDNY EMS Captain Alison Russo-Elling today.

President Joe Biden is in Florida today checking out the damage left behind by Hurricane Ian.

We’ll speak with the Diocese of Brooklyn’s new Victim Assistance Coordinator.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 10/04/22

It’s been nearly a week since Hurricane Ian decimated communities in Florida and the search for survivors grows more desperate by the minute.

New York City has a new plan to house the migrants who were bussed here from Texas.

We’ll have an update on those synod listening sessions that happened at churches across the diocese.

Diocese of Brooklyn Gets Ready to Release Synod Report

By Jessica Easthope

While the average parishioner might think the Synod process is over for the Diocese of Brooklyn, Sister Maryann LoPiccolo says now is when the real progress begins.

“This is the beginning of a long, long process of rebuilding the church and getting people back, so the listening sessions were just the beginning so it’s half over,” Sr. Maryann, the co-director of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Synod said.

Thousands across Brooklyn and Queens participated, many of them digitally. A report on the listening sessions was due over the summer and now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is reviewing how Catholics feel about their Church.

“This really is Pope Francis’ call for missionary discipleship, it’s a call for everyone who is person of faith to be energized, inviting and welcoming and that’s the key, can we create inviting welcoming communities of faith so people want to be a part of us,” said Father Joseph Gibino the synod’s other director.

In Brooklyn and Queens people want more faith formation for young people and families. They also want a focus on the area’s diverse populations. The Diocese of Brooklyn is the most diverse diocese in the country, masses are said in 33 languages.

“You have maybe mass in three languages, you have three communities but how do you make that one parish community and build community so that people know each other,” said Sr. Maryann.

Bishop Robert Brennan said what struck him most about the synod process is how passionate people are about their faith and church community.

“We don’t live in Catholic bubbles, what people are looking for is to make that connection, they want their faith to be able to help them and sustain them as they’re living out their everyday lives and that theme seemed to emerge out of the synod,” he said.

Over the next year, the Brooklyn diocesan report will become part of larger national and continental reports. And just like the church itself – the goal for the Synod is ever evolving.

“What he wants this to be is an ongoing process of discernment, the journeying together as Church and that happens in every age, with every age group in every culture and every corner of our world,” Sr. Maryann said.

The diocesan synod report will be released on Wednesday October 13.

Diocese of Brooklyn Announces Special Collection for Victims of Recent Hurricanes

WINDSOR TERRACE — Bishop Robert Brennan is asking the faithful of the diocese to donate to the victims of recent hurricanes Fiona and Ian.

“We have all seen the painful images of utter devastation and heard of the deaths caused by the recent hurricanes that have affected our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Florida, and the southeastern United States,” Bishop Robert Brennan wrote in a letter to priests of the diocese asking them to organize a special collection.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by these terrible natural disasters,” the bishop added.

Hurricane Fiona brought winds up to 85 mph and more than 20 inches of rain to Puerto Rico on Sept. 18, knocking out water and power on the island. Over 1,000 people were rescued as the storm flooded streets, caused mudslides, and destroyed infrastructure.

On Sept. 23, five days before Fiona dissipated, Hurricane Ian formed, first striking Cuba, and then making landfall in the Ft. Myers, Florida area on Sept. 28, as a Category 4 storm.

Though Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm after wrecking swaths of Florida, it regained strength and regrouped as a hurricane before heading toward South Carolina.

President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration to send federal help before it made landfall in Charleston on Sept. 30.

Residents of Florida and the Carolinas face an estimated recovery cost in the tens of billions of dollars.

As of Oct. 2, at least 80 people were confirmed dead, and more than 1,600 people had been rescued in parts of southwest and central Florida.

In the days after Hurricane Fiona tore through the Caribbean, Pope Francis sent separate telegrams to the presidents of the bishops’ conferences of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, assuring them of his prayers.

Bishop Brennan’s letter stated, “The monies collected will be sent by our Diocese for distribution and direct assistance to the affected by the hurricanes.”

Those who wish to send their checks directly to the diocese can do so.

Checks should be made out as follows:

COMPOSTELA FUND OF THE RC DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN

With the word “Hurricanes” written in the memo  

Mail to:

Diocesan Finance Office

310 Prospect Park West

Brooklyn, NY 11215