Highlighting progress made in safeguarding and recommendations for rectifying ongoing gaps, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors dedicated its first annual report to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Church. Source: CNS.
“The commission’s work – including this report – is and always has been about recognition and inclusion of victims and survivors of abuse in the life of the Church,” Cardinal Seán O’Malley, president of the pontifical commission, said at a news conference at the Vatican yesterday.
“Your suffering and wounds have opened our eyes to the fact that as a Church we have failed to care for victims, and that we didn’t defend you, and that we resisted understanding you when you needed us most,” he said.
“We praise your courageous testimony, and at the same time, we recognise that you are likely tired of empty words,” the cardinal said.
“Nothing we do will ever be enough to fully repair what has happened, but we hope that this report and those that will come, compiled with the help of victims and survivors at the centre, will help to ensure the firm commitment that these events never happen again in the Church.”
The cardinal and other members of the commission presented their pilot annual report, a tool mandated by Pope Francis to measure and document the Church’s progress in safeguarding minors and vulnerable adults around the world.
“The pilot report is not intended as an audit of the incidence of abuse within Church contexts,” the report said.
“This is especially due to time and capacity constraints” and “to a lack of reliable data in some countries, most notably reliable statistics on the number of children who are sexually abused.”
“Hopefully, future reports will address the incidence of abuse, including the question of progress in reducing and preventing abuse,” which might better fulfill “the long-term auditing function of the commission,” it said.
The 100-page report produced detailed “profiles” covering about two dozen Church entities.
A key goal of the annual report is to track and foster “pastoral conversion, a change of heart of overcoming our sinful past” while also encouraging continued steps, recognising “there is still much needing to be done,” Cardinal O’Malley said.
FULL STORY
Papal commission releases report highlighting progress in safeguarding (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
RELATED COVERAGE
Safeguarding Minors: First Report calls for ‘rigorous’ response (Vatican News)
Card. O’Malley on abuse: “There cannot be healing without justice” (Vatican News)
Pope’s child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office and compensation (NCR Online)
