(ITALY)
YouTube [San Bruno CA]
November 18, 2024
By AP Video
1 Wide of the press conference room
2. Close of the Ending Clergy Abuse logo projected on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Buchanan, Ending Clergy Abuse founding member and human rights consultant:
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“We are in a pivotal moment where we can change the trajectory of the lives of children in the church and throughout society. Church can take a leadership role. Because of the lack of care and trauma I experienced in childhood, because of the clergy sex abuse I experienced, I was never able to have children. So I carry with me a photo of my one-year-old self as a constant reminder of why this work is important. No child should ever experience sexual violence, especially in the church. It is in our hands to make sure no one does.”
4. Banner of Zero Tolerance global campaign on ground
5. Close of sexual abuse survivors pictures and banners from the Zero Tolerance campaign
6. Close of Zero Tolerance campaign banner on the ground
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Gemma Hickey, Ending Clergy Abuse president:
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“Clergy sexual abuse is not a relic of the past, it is an on-going, ever-present danger. While countries around the world have begun to act, investigating, issuing reports, and despite countless exposes in the media and ongoing legal battles led by brave survivors, the church continues to lag, learning nothing from the mistakes of the past. New reports of abuse by the clergy continue to emerge, but for every case that is brought to light, countless others remain in the shadows.”
8. Close of cross with wording written on reading (English): “Zero Tolerance”
9. Various of St. Peter’s Basilica seen from Rome
STORYLINE:
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002, arguing that there’s no reason why children around the world shouldn’t be kept just as safe from predator priests.
The U.S. norms, adopted at the height of the abuse scandal there, say a priest will be permanently removed from church ministry based on even a single act of sexual abuse that is either admitted to or established under church law.
That “one strike and you’re out” policy in the U.S. has long stood out as the toughest in the church. It is held up by some as the gold standard, by others as excessive and by still others as imperfect but better than most.
It was adopted by U.S. bishops as they scrambled to try to retain credibility following the revelations of abuse and cover-up in Boston documented by the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series.
Since then, the church abuse scandal has erupted globally, and survivors from around the world said Monday there’s no reason why the U.S. norms couldn’t and shouldn’t be applied universally.
They called for changes in the church’s in-house canon law and reasoned they could be approved since the Holy See approved the norms for the U.S. church.
“We are in a pivotal moment where we can change the trajectory of the lives of children in the church and throughout society,” said Denise Buchanan, human rights consultant and founding member of global survivor network Ending Clergy Abuse.
The proposal launched at a press conference was hammered out during an unusual meeting in June in Rome between survivors and some of the Catholic hierarchy’s top priestly experts on preventing abuse.