SafeNet is a non-profit program under Instruments of Peace. We are dedicated to peace and healing work related to the clergy sexual abuse crisis and committed to helping all who have been impacted.

     Our work has included outreach to survivors, their families, friends, former classmates of St. Anthony's Seminary, former members of The Santa Barbara Boys Choir, the friars, the perpetrators, the Greater Community, parish communities, legal representatives, and the media. We have also extended our outreach to include survivors and parish communities of other religious orders and dioceses across the country. 

     SafeNet began in March, 2003, after a small group of clergy sexual abuse survivors of St. Anthony Seminary, a Catholic vocational high school administered by the Franciscan religious order in Santa Barbara, California, gathered for a spiritual healing retreat in Pacific Grove, California, sponsored by the Franciscans. Out of that gathering two survivors, Paul Fericano and John McCord, created SafeNet.

     Since its inception, SafeNet has encouraged and supported the healing process on many levels, including discussions, forums, retreats, therapy, legal settlements and issues of restorative justice. We continue to help people come together and listen to one another, privately and in groups, in an honest and safe environment.

     SafeNet respects and supports the need for each individual to do whatever is necessary to ensure one's own safety and well being. We acknowledge that each of us must choose our own path to healing.