Barbara Blaine

Who is Barbara Blaine?

Barbara Blaine is the founder and president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy group for survivors of clerical sexual abuse. She alleges that she was sexually abused during her teenage years from junior high school until graduation by a priest. She revealed this in 1989. The priest, Chet Warren, was removed from ministry and has been defrocked after she and others came forward.

Blaine was born in Toledo, Ohio, and currently resides in Chicago. She has a bachelor's degree from St. Louis University, a master's degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louis and a law degree from DePaul University School of Law.

Blaine worked as a lay missionary in Jamaica before moving to Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood in 1983 to take a job with Pax Christi, an international Catholic peace movement. She then held a decade-long position with the Catholic Worker, a social service agency. Blaine also opened a homeless facility in a convent at the now-shuttered Little Flower Catholic Church on the South Side. In 2002 she also worked as an assistant Cook County Public Guardian in Patrick Murphy's office.