Vatican City, Oct 29, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican issued its first annual report Tuesday assessing the Catholic Church’s policies and procedures to prevent abuse in dioceses worldwide from Africa to Oceania.
The 50-page report by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is the first in an annual series that aims to provide analysis of safeguarding measures in dioceses, Catholic organizations, and religious orders globally over the next five to six years.
Released on Oct. 29, the inaugural report found that “a significant part of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia have inadequate dedicated resources” available for safeguarding efforts.
The pontifical commission also identified a “persistent concern regarding the transparency in the Roman Curia’s procedures and juridical processes,” noting that this lack of transparency is likely to “foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community.”
It pointed to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) in particular for its slow processing of cases and lengthy canonical proceedings, which it said can be a “source of re-traumatization for victims.”
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has been a part of the DDF since Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia in 2022, yet the commission has frequently underlined its independence from the dicastery.
The commission also called for a dedicated advocate or ombudsman in the Vatican to assist victims and advocated for further study on compensation policies.
The report is not an audit of abuse incidents within the Church but rather a review of safeguarding policies and procedures. The commission indicated that future reports could evolve to include an audit function on the incidence of abuse, including measuring progress in reducing and preventing abuse.
The commission’s pilot report evaluated diocesan safeguarding practices in a dozen countries, including Mexico, Belgium, Cameroon, and Papua New Guinea, as well as two religious orders and across Caritas’ regional offices.
The commission’s findings varied across regions. While parts of Europe displayed advanced safeguarding practices, including trauma-informed support, regions such as Central and South America, Africa, and parts of Asia face significant challenges due to limited resources and inadequate training.
The commission cited critical obstacles, from cultural and financial barriers to shortages of trained personnel in areas like canon law and psychology.
In Papua New Guinea, funding constraints restrict training for safeguarding experts, and prohibitively expensive rape kits limit the ability to gather evidence for criminal investigations. A similar lack of trained experts in canon law and psychology impedes the work of Church safeguarding offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zambia, meanwhile, faces cultural obstacles, such as a “patriarchal society” and “a culture of silence,” which prevent survivors, particularly young girls, from reporting abuse.
In Mexico, cultural barriers to reporting abuse also pose a significant hurdle to justice, according to the report.
In response to gaps in safeguarding resources, particularly in developing regions, the commission introduced the “Memorare Initiative,” inspired by a traditional prayer to the Virgin Mary. This program aims to support the establishment of centers for abuse reporting and victim services in the Global South.
Other recommendations included streamlined procedures for removing Church leaders implicated in abuse or cover-ups, as well as policies promoting fair compensation for victims.
The report also suggested that the Vatican collaborate with pontifical universities to create specialized courses of study on safeguarding for clergy and Church workers.
Looking ahead, the commission plans to review between 15 and 20 bishops’ conferences per year during ad limina visits, with the goal of examining the entire Church over five to six years.
Pope Francis requested the commission to create the report in 2022. Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who has led the commission since it was established by Francis in 2014, emphasized that the annual reports are intended as both a tool for accountability and a step toward restoring trust in the Church’s commitment to safeguarding and transparency.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
I smell more programs with pages and pages of guidelines developed by committees and hours of cringy videos that the laity will need to sit through every year. These are simply “cover your butt” programs that the diocese can point to show “we are doing something.” After a couple of years, I think most people play the videos with the sound off and go do something useful. However, I do agree that the background checks are potentially useful, but I have never seen statistics on how may get flagged. But as a minimum, it could provide a deterrent.
Annual clean up reports were promised before the world’s press by Cardinal Cupich at the end of “McCarrick Con II”, and none what-so-ever have been published.
How many laïcisations?
It beggers belief that the media is so in step as to not question that big fat lie.
Meaningless as long as pontiff francis continues to shield Rupnick. Let’s remember that the protection of minors ought to also include other vulnerable persons- especially in those situations where there are discrepancies in power.
I’ll take this more seriously when James Martin is laicized. I won’t hold my breath.
Our Vatican continues to divert attention away from the root cause of clergy abuse of minors, which is the presence of clergy who are not pedophiles but homosexuals. They continue to be protected and in instances elevated to key positions including the Synod on Synodality where their agenda of normalization of homosexual relations continues.
McCarrick was symptomatic of this scandal within the Church as is the Rupnik case. Victims, religious sisters whose abuse continues by the silence, the intransigence, the dearth of justice. Pray that the responsible hierarchy come to their moral senses and correct this.
Nothing says: “WE ARE OUTLAWS AND FRAUDS” better than an annual sex abuse report published by an organization run by a man who has made a career out of harboring sex abusers.
Modern Catholicism is dismissive of “men with chests” hence a matriarchal sentimentalism permeates the Church. The Modern Church seems to focus on raising boys to be good persons at the expense of being great men aspiring to the religious life or husbands of households.
I was recently subjected for a second time to the abuse prevention “program” our diocese mandates be taken by all church volunteers. It involves a police background check (about which I do not care) and watching a video about child sexual abuse which IS a problem for me. This video is nothing short of disgusting. My diocese requires all volunteers to do this every 5 years. Having weathered this disturbing and emotionally upsetting film twice, I have made the decision not to cooperate with watching it again in the future. Most likely this will mean I will be barred from church service but I dont see subjecting myself to this noxious video again. Oddly enough, priests are scarcely mentioned as potential abuse perpetrators in the film. All the potential weirdos seem to be lay people. The child/teen victims who speak go on and on about their emotional pain in excruciating and upsetting detail . And it would appear that there is an expectation that church volunteers inform on each other if observed being “too friendly” to children. I am not interested in accusing a possibly innocent person of such crimes. I am not a cop or social worker. Nor do I want to open myself up to a potential slander lawsuit. In addition my church service requires almost no exposure to children, so I do not see the need for this.
I agree that child sexual abuse is horrific and steps of some sort need to be taken. I dont think it should mean turning church members into potential informants, unless they witness something so unmistakably graphic happening that there is no other possible explanation. And as the film points out abusers are always careful to do their abuse unseen. So, what is the point?? I think the Bishops have put their responsibilities on the shoulders of the parishioners and I have no interest in being part of that.
One diocese I’m familiar with had a program that required volunteers to log into a site every month and read a lame article that had nothing to do with abuse. Then take a test on the article. If you failed to log into the site for three months you had to take the 2 hr “training” program all over again to get recertified. BTW – the so-called training program could be summed up in four words “child abuse is bad.” Well, duh.
I think the church needs to come up with something better and less intrusive to the volunteers who expend a great deal of personal time and effort volunteering for the church. Maybe if enough people drop out they will consider alternatives. I will be heartbroken to be forced to leave my ministry at some point in the future, but I dont feel as if I have an alternative. I think the ongoing mandatory nature of the program is the problem. Seeing this garbage once is more than enough to ask volunteers to do. I dont see the need to this disturbing material expose people to it over and over again.