Vatican City, 7 February 2015 (VIS) –
Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Boston,
U.S.A. and president of the Commission for the Protection of Minors
gave an update this morning in the Holy See Press Office on the work
of this entity following the letter sent by Pope Francis on 2
February to the presidents of the episcopal conferences and superiors
of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic
Life throughout the world. The cardinal was accompanied by two
members of the Commission, Sister Kayula Gertrude Lesa RSC of Zambia,
who works with refugees and the victims of human trafficking, and
Peter Saunders, founder of the British organisation NAPAC (National
Association for People Abused in Childhood).
Cardinal O'Malley began by noting that
the date on which the Pope sent the letter – the Feast of the
Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple “is symbolic as we
work to make the Temple a safe place to bring children”, and added
that he is writing to the various episcopal conferences to request
that each one name a contact person who can help establish a line of
communication with the conferences as well as with Religious
Superiors. “One of the tasks of the Commission, working with the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will be to reach out to
help suggest best practices, especially to conferences that are
finding it difficult to develop policies. The Commission is also
tasked to promote education and child safety programs and to present
methods for measuring compliance”.
On Friday, 6 February the first meeting
of the full Commission was held, attended by all seventeen members,
with new representation from Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.
“I am truly impressed by the wealth of experience and commitment
that all the members bring to the Commission”, commented the
archbishop of Boston.
“We are currently working to develop
seminars to educate Church leadership in the area of child
protection”, he continued. “We hope to offer these programs for
members of the Roman Curia and for newly appointed bishops who come
to Rome from throughout the world, for orientation programs sponsored
by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the
Evangelisation of Peoples. The Commission is also preparing materials
for a Day of Prayer for all those who have been harmed by sexual
abuse. Such an activity underscores our responsibility to work for
spiritual healing and also helps raise consciousness among the
Catholic community about the scourge of child abuse”.
“We have also begun to reach out to
Catholic funding organisations, to ask them to include some
requirements concerning child protection in their guidelines for
eligibility for funding. Realising that many of the countries that
need to do the most work to advance child protection are also often
terribly lacking in resources, we are asking the funding
organisations to award grants in these counties for establishing
child protection programs and providing training for Church
personnel”, added Cardinal O'Malley.
The Commission is currently in the
process of establishing a series of working groups to call on the
expertise of individuals who are not members but can provide valuable
assistance. “We have one working group which has been charged with
the task of outreach to survivors who might contribute to our efforts
by their participation, especially concerning issues of prevention
and sound guidelines”, he concluded.
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