Anglophone Conference Concludes in Vatican

(09 June 09 - RV) Here in the Vatican on Friday June 5th , representatives from the US, Great Britain, India, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Ireland wrapped up a three day meeting on the issue of child protection and support for victims of abuse:

The group goes by the name “The Anglophone Conference” and was originally set up over ten years ago by bishops from the US, Australia and New Zealand, in an effort to share best practise in helping victims who were abused by priests and religious in their countries.

One of the founding members and chairman of the conference is the Archbishop of Melbourne Australia, Phillip Wilson. He explains that the nature of the crisis emerging in national churches across the globe has forced the member nations to move the meeting schedule from every two years to every year: “It seems to me that the nature of the crises reveals several areas which the Church needs to attend to and this has been part of the life of this conference. We have to find the best ways to respond to the victims and their families and to helping them. We also have to work out ways of dealing effectively with the perpetrators, there are criminal issues, and they must be dealt with, but also we must make sure that the opportunities to do those terrible things are stopped. We also have to look at issues associated with the selection and training of clergy and religious. And finally, we really have to work hard at creating what is described around the world as a ‘child safe environment’”.

Ian Elliot Chief executive officer for the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland: “We are engaged with this crises and we are actively learning from it”.