VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (Tutela Minorum) [Vatican City]
October 25, 2024
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors announced that it will present its pilot Annual Report on Safeguarding at the Holy See Press Office on Tuesday, October 29th.
Among those presenting the report at the press conference are: Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Commission President; Maud De Boer Buquicchio, Commission Member and Annual Report Chairperson; Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, Commission Secretary; and Teresa Kettelkamp, Commission Adjunct Secretary.
“Our goal is to develop an Annual Report with a commitment to transparency and accountability, in solidarity with victims and survivors throughout the world,” Cardinal O’Malley said.
A request from Pope Francis
The launch of the Annual Report is both a milestone for the Commission and a work-in-progress. It is the first step towards a process of data gathering and reporting within the Catholic Church, which began by papal request.
“I would like you, on an annual basis, to prepare for me a report on the Church’s initiatives for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults,” Pope Francis said in April 2022. The pope asked the Commission to “furnish a reliable account on what is presently being done and what needs to change, so that competent authorities can act.”
As Pope Francis stated, “this will be a factor of transparency and accountability and –I hope– will provide a clear audit of our progress in this effort.”
The Commission counts on its members’ expertise
The Commission’ members, who are appointed directly by the Holy Father, are experts in various fields related to safeguarding, including policy-making, law, education, clinical psychology, psychiatry, as well as experts serving in the field of human rights within international organizations.
Appointed as a Commission by Pope Francis in 2021, the reports’ Chairperson, Ms. De Boer-Buquicchio, served in several international organizations: as deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe from 2002 to 2012, and as the UN’s special rapporteur on sexual exploitation of children from 2014 to 2020. In her role as special rapporteur, she reported on sexual abuse in institutional settings, including in the Catholic Church.
In their work on the annual report, she said, “we have been able to explore many of the concerns about the lack of data available.”
“The Annual Report is a tool for promoting a change of mindset, in the Church” that embraces accountability and transparency,” she added. “The Annual Report is a tool to promote this process of pastoral conversion.”
Fellow Commission member Benyam Dawit Mezmur is a professor of Law at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa and has served as a member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child for the past 12 years.
Professor Mezmur noted that a 2013 review of the Holy See by the U.N. Committee revealed several critical issues, including “the need to have solid information base, the importance of having good practices, and the role that interventions have at the local level can actually play to prevent, but also address sexual abuse cases within the Church.”
“The pilot Annual Report actually contributes significantly to addressing some of these issues,” Professor Mezmur said, adding that its publication was an important “first step.”
“It will be a process, and that process of reporting will inevitably contribute significantly to providing interventions that can be replicated at different parts of the world with a view to prevent and address sexual violence and sexual abuse within the Church.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2PUFUOm2bcE%3Ffeature%3Doembed
Report Outlook
The Report will be divide into four critical sections.
- The first section focuses on the local Church, reviewing the safeguarding policies and procedures taken by 17 local Churches. The information on the local Churches was gathered during the ad Limina visits of the bishops in those dioceses.
- The second section will delve into the Church’s safeguarding mission within the continental regions.
- The third section aims to analyze the safeguarding policies and procedures of the Roman Curia in service of the local Church, by assessing the different Dicasteries.
- The fourth section gives a picture of the Church’s safeguarding ministry in the broader society, examining in the present report the case study of Caritas Internationalis and its offices in different countries around the world.