Vatican determined to look sin and crime of sex abuse in the face
“Sexual abuse by a priest is a crime and an abuse of spiritual power”, affirmed Msgr.
Charles Sicluna, Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Saturday morning to press at the launch of a Symposium titled “Towards
healing and renewal”.
The gathering, which will take place February 6th
to 9th 2012, is being organised by the Pontifical Gregorian University,
with the goal of formulating a global response to the scandal of sex abuse within
the Church.
Research and study into sex abuse will also take place through
the creation of a new “multi-lingual e-learning centre” also launched Saturday. The
centre has been set up to improve information and prevention. Moreover from now to
February, the centre’s work will be made public with regular press releases.
“We want to face this problem from the point of view of ‘state of the art’ science,
psychology, psychiatry”, explains Fr. Hans Zollner, Dean of the Institute
of Psychology and Head of the Preparatory Committee of the Symposium, “but also from
the point of view of jurisprudence, even within the Church, so taking into consideration
the norms now in vigour following the CDF Circular Letter. We want to help Bishops
Conferences develop guidelines on how to deal with abusers and ensure that these cases
aren’t repeated and, most important of all, try to help – as much as is possible –
to heal the wounds of the victims”.
Speaking to Vatican Radio, Msgr. Scicluna
praised the Symposium as a tool that will aid Bishops Conferences worldwide in their
attempt to draw up comprehensive guidelines for safeguarding against abuse in the
Church, as demanded by the May 2011 CDF Circular Letter.
“Some bishops have
expressed the need for tools to help deepen their understanding of the problem. They
have also requested to be able to share the experiences of other Bishop’s Conferences”.
The Symposium he adds “will benefit from experts from all sectors and every part of
the world”. Msgr. Scicluna affirms that the specific experience of nations such as
the United States and Ireland will be looked at, and points to the participation of
one of the “maximum authorities”, US native Msgr. Steve Rosetti as well as Professor
Baroness Sheila Hollins, from the UK, who accompanied Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor
on the Apostolic Visitation to the Archdiocese of Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Questioned
as to whether we could now speak of a decisive strategy on the part of the Vatican
in the fight against paedophilia within the Church, Msgr Scicluna responded that the
Circular Letter sends “a very strong signal of determination, born of the Pope’s own
determination to look the sin and crime of paedophilia in the face, while at the same
time affirming that we must be able to give a clear, credible, firm and effective
response to this problem within the Church. To be witnesses not only to respect for
the innocence of children and young people, but also to the demands of truth in justice”.
“There are so many different aspects to what the Church needs to do and I
think that the Symposium, is going to help by sharing experiences across the world,
by sharing resources which will be usable across the world”, Baroness Shelia
Hollins told Lydia O’Kane.
The professor of psychiatry
at St George's University in London is one of the many experts who will make an intervention
at the February Symposium, alongside a victim of abuse. On Saturday the Professor
also shared her recent experience of listening to victims in Ireland. “One of the
main problems in the process of healing and renewal is that the victims feel they
are not really being heard”, she revealed. “It’s not enough to register shock at their
stories, we need to go beyond and listen to them with out whole bodies. I think people
do need to hear 'sorry'. We have a focus on the importance of confession, there has
to be an admission of guilt first. And you know it's quite difficult if the admission
of guilt isn’t there for even ‘sorry’ to have meaning”.
Baroness also surprised
press Saturday morning by saying that despite the wounded anger that many still feel
towards the Church in Ireland, she left the island nation hopeful. “I think one of
the things that I was most impressed by and surprised by in Ireland, was the fact
that so many people have retained a deep faith and have real hope that things are
going to get better, despite the pain and suffering that they have experienced for
themselves. Although there are others who have lost both their faith and their hope,
so it’s a double loss”. Listen to Emer McCarthy's report: