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	Protecting Our Children and Young People By Archbishop John Vlazny Catholic Sentinel September 21, 2007 http://www.sentinel.org/node/8312 Soon it will be autumn. Here in the Archdiocese of Portland we shall observe our fall Ember Day on Wednesday, September 26. This special day of prayer and fasting once again will focus on the need for healing and reconciliation in the lives of those who have been most aggrieved as a result of the sexual abuse of children by some of our clergy, religious and other church workers. This particular Ember Day happens to fall on the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, two physicians and martyrs from the third century. They are regarded as the patrons of physicians and surgeons and are sometimes represented with medical emblems. As we pray for healing, their intercession seems most appropriate. The real work of healing and reconciliation, however, will never be truly successful until we are confident that we as a people have done everything we can to protect our children and youth from such crimes again in the future. Is it possible for us to eradicate these crimes completely? Probably not, given the pervasive and persistent nature of sinful behavior. But this is no excuse for not trying. Here in the Archdiocese of Portland, as in many other dioceses across the United States, we have made true progress in dealing with clerical sexual abuse of minors. But this work must continue because healing takes a long time. It is important for our parishes and pastoral ministers to continue to reach out to victims, to seek their forgiveness and to collaborate in our efforts to make our children as safe as possible from such harm again. It is true that some of the victims do want to deal with this issue on their own. Others, on the other hand, cannot and should not. We have established an Office for Child Protection and Victim Assistance. Cathy Shannon is the director. She began this work on a part-time basis but in order to underscore the importance of this work and to respond adequately to its many challenges she has served as full-time Child Protection and Victim Assistance Officer since July 2006. Like other victim assistance coordinators across this land, Cathy's duties are basically three-fold. She assists abuse victims in making a formal complaint of abuse to the archdiocese. She also helps arrange a personal meeting with a representative of the church or myself. And she tries to obtain support for the specific needs of the individual victim. In describing the work of victim assistance coordinators for the various local churches, someone has said, "They gotta have heart." Folks like Cathy have learned that most victims are eager to find someone who will listen to their story, take them seriously, show compassion, understand the courage it takes to come forward, offer assistance and let them know they are not alone. Cathy does that work very well. But, as everyone knows, the best way to assist victims is to reduce their numbers. That's why we are presently so focused on the protection of our children and young people. In this respect there is a great success story taking place in our Catholic community. Our church is probably the only group of people that has undertaken a comprehensive program to educate children and those people who work with them as an essential element in our efforts to provide a safe environment in our faith communities. As of this summer some 5.7 million people received safe environment training from the church and 1.6 million people who work in the church have experienced background evaluations. Some folks become impatient with the process and wonder when it will end. It certainly won't end in my lifetime and maybe not yours. The older I get I realize that physical healing takes more time. The deeper the emotional and spiritual wounds, the longer such healing takes place as well. But healing can and will happen, if we really care and persevere. The work of the church I have been describing doesn't make headlines. We're lucky if it's in the newspaper at all. Sometimes I am amazed how many Catholics are totally unaware of these developments. According to a May 2007 poll, only 34 percent of Catholics realize that we bishops now have a charter for the protection of our children and young people, promulgated in 2002 and updated in 2005. The profound pain and suffering of the victims touched us all deeply. With our clergy, religious and people we continue to make efforts to atone for the sinfulness, the criminality and the breach of trust perpetrated by some members of the clergy. And we are likewise committed to learning as much as we can about the causes and context of this problem. This summer and fall Catholic dioceses across the nation are experiencing audits which will determine the adequacy of their compliance with the bishops' charter. We have already been audited successfully three times. The audit here will take place in November. As part of our continuing efforts to improve the prevention training of our people, the archdiocese has contracted with Praesidium, Inc., the national leader in abuse risk management. Praesidium helps create environments that protect those who are vulnerable from abuse, environments that protect church workers from false allegations of abuse, environments that protect our faith community from scandal and further harm. In late summer of this year all of our clergy and pastoral workers have participated in training sessions across the archdiocese with the representatives of Praesidium. Praesidium has worked with churches of all faiths, religious orders, dioceses and other youth ministries to set standards that ensure safety. This is our best effort at present to balance the risk management needs of the church with the holiness of our mission. We are a people of faith. On September 26, this fall's Ember Day, we turn to our loving God, through the intercession of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and we pray for continued healing and reconciliation among those who have been victimized by the child sexual abuse scandal in our church. But as we look to the future, we recognize that the greatest service we can give to promote healing is the protection of our children. Most victims tell me that what they desire most of all is that no child will ever again be harmed as they were. I pray that we are all similarly focused. God bless.
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