New CDF Promoter of Justice pledges commitment to child protection

(Vatican Radio) While there is a continuing commitment to making the Church a safer place for children, there has been very little theological reflection on the effects of the sex abuse crisis. That was the message to emerge from a press conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Tuesday, one year on from the first major Symposium for Church leaders dealing with prevention and healing for victims of abuse.

Bishops and religious superiors from countries right across the globe attended the three day Symposium last February, which included personal testimony from an Irish woman who was sexually abused by a priest

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Among those speaking at the press conference was Fr Robert Oliver, the new promoter of justice with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body which oversees all allegations of clerical abuse. An average of some 600 cases continue to be reported to the CDF each year, most of them dealing with abuse that took place in the two decades between 1965 and 1985.

Fr Robert said while the Church is still struggling with issues of denial and disbelief, it is firmly committed to confronting the problem and protecting children in its care..

“My experience is that every one of us has difficulty in coming to understand how prevalent this is in our societies…….“In the beginning our reaction was no, it’s not possible, people don’t do this to children”

The main purpose of the press conference was to present the full proceedings of the 2012 Symposium in 12 different language editions – something the Jesuit organisers hope will provide a valuable resource for Church leaders in countries just beginning to tackle the problem of sexual abuse.

At that Symposium a new Centre for Child Protection was also launched, based around an e-learning internet platform currently being introduced to countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, Dean of the Gregorian’s Institute of Psychology and head of the steering committee at the Centre for Child Protection…..

“Certainly we have very encouraging signs......we work with various people, for example in East Europe with people at state level also who look forward to having an instrument which could be a very helpful tool for preventing abuse...

I think many bishops and religious superiors who participated in the Symposium have gotten the message and went back to their dioceses with their sensibility and availability heightened, to encounter victims, to offer what help they can and to go on evaluating the structures of our institutions...

Healing takes place in long processes, especially if there are wounds as deep as abuse inflicts, so I know many priests, bishops, many councelling centres of the Church are involved in this but it's a silent work. It's not done in a year or five years. This is a process that has to continue, as our work of prevention has to continue with unwavering perseverance."