Pope’s adviser: license and train priests to prevent child abuse, by Sam Buckingham-Jones, Australian (February 23, 2017)

Licenses and regular training for priests and bishops should be considered as a measure to protect children from abuse, a group advising the Pope on the issue says.

Baroness Sheila Hollins, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told a Royal Commission this morning registration licenses like those used by medical professionals could be an option for priests, who would then go through an “appraisal system” of regular education.

“I don’t see why there couldn’t be an appraisal system, and why that appraisal system shouldn’t require feedback from parishioners and others with whom a priest is in regular contact,” Baroness Hollins told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. baroness

“The answer is often that the sacramental part of the priest’s role is not something which could be subject to external, lay scrutiny. But my view is that there is a part of a priest’s role which is very similar to the kind of professional role that, for example, doctors and teachers might have. That part of their role could be subject to licensing.”

Members of the Pontifical Commission had initially declined to give oral evidence before the Royal Commission, instead preferring to rely on a submission written by Baroness Hollins.

The group was set up in 2014 to advise the Pope on new initiatives to protect children from pedophiles in the church. Baroness Hollins said it has so far made a number of recommendations, including that letters written by sexual abuse survivors always be answered.

“It sounds very simple, why is that so hard?” Gail Furness SC, lead counsel assisting the Royal Commission, asked.

“It’s interesting how difficult it is to get people to be able to allow the reality of abuse, the painfulness of their abuse, to be present in their consciousness,” Baroness Hollins said.

“It takes a lot of courage to face up to the reality of abuse. You can’t just listen once, you have to keep on listening and keep on being there, because this is long term suffering that many people experience.”