QUESTION : Can you tell us just a little bit what the priorities are in the Church today with regard to the prevention of child abuse?
ANSWER : Well, I think the priorities are the same as ever. I mean, we’re trying to put the victims and their families first.
But certainly, trans-parency; in the past, the worst… actions of the church were covering up the crimes, not re-porting them. So, work-ing with the civil autho-rities is a very, very important step forward: transparency, letting people know what’s happening; a sense of responsibility; and the importance of a whole educational process in the Church, so that people realize that the Church, by our very mission, needs to be an expression of God’s love and mercy, and there-fore the care and prote-ction of the children and young people needs to be central in our mission.
And as I say, people will listen to our message only if they are convin-ced that we care about them. We care about their children. We care about the safety of their children.
And so these are the ongoing priorities. And Pope Francis, of course, called for that summit a few years ago, brought together the heads of all the bishops’ conferen-ces, and challenged them to take these things seriously. And that was also a very important step forward.
But as I say in the global South, many of the countries are just begi-nning to grapple with this, and the commission is particularly focused on trying to help them…
(Vatican News)
- Cardinal O’Malley
Archbishop Emeritus of Boston
