Pope Francis urges continued fight to protect children from abuse

June 05, 2013: “This is important work, keep it up!” said Pope Francis three times Tuesday morning as he greeted Prof. Hans Zollner, the German Jesuit who heads the Gregorian University Centre for Child Protection. The Centre has just finished hosting an annual English language conference – sponsored by the US Bishops and with the participation of the bishops of Sri Lanka – this year dedicated to the theme “Prevention of abuse: We are going Global”. The Holy Father also greeted representatives from various national Committees for the protection of children and young people who were present at morning Mass.

On the very day that the United Nations has dedicated to Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, Pope Francis wanted to meet with the Centre staff who are helping bishops conferences, religious congregations, local churches and society at large face the issue of the abuse of children and find the best way forward to make sure that it is eradicated.

“It is always a privilege to meet the Holy Father and this morning three people from the Gregorian University Centre for Child Protection were invited to attend morning Mass, because we are also at the end of an English language conference, that is organized every year by the American bishops plus the Sri Lankan bishops. This year the topic was ‘Prevention of abuse: We are going Global’ and certainly our aim from the Centre for Child Protection is that we do something on a global level and therefore we were very glad that some months after we presented the same project to Pope Benedict, we could present it today to Pope Francis. He listened very carefully when we explained about our procedure our measure and our scope, that it is an international one, a truly Catholic one and his words - more than two or three times he repeated – keep up the work! Go on! This is very important!”.

The Centre for Child Protection was founded in 2010 as a cooperation between the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome, Italy), the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Ulm University Hospital (Germany), and the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (Germany).