inthenews
July 16, 2007
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/music/catholic-abuse-review-calls-central-commission-$1109129.htm
United Kingdom — The Catholic church should set up a new commission to protect children and vulnerable adults at parish and church level, an independent commission has said.
Baroness Cumberlege's review of measures tackling abuse calls for agreement on a national set of policies, accepted and implemented by all dealing with the problem within the Catholic church.
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| Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor has welcomed the report's findings |
A new national safeguarding commission would oversee this process while the existing Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults, to be renamed the Catholic Safeguard Advisory Service, should concentrate on sharing good practice.
The report, Safeguarding with Confidence, also recommends a strengthening of the church's procedures for managing abuse which fit in with its "universal laws and natural justice".
Baroness Cumberlege, who chaired the review, said the adoption of a 'One Church' approach would put bishops "in the driving seat", helping "ensure that there is one set of policies adopted by the whole church".
"The prime motivation for this report is that in the future the Catholic church is confident in carrying out Christ's work and is not fearful that the organisation lacks the ability to cope with those who fail," she explained.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, welcomed the report's findings and described its work as "thorough, painstaking and independent".
"It is important for all those within the church to study the commission's findings very carefully and discern how the recommendations can be incorporated into our diocesan and parish structures. Later this year, we will make a more formal response to the commission's findings once the best way forward has been discerned," he said.
The Catholic church saw two high-profile abuse cases pass through the courts this spring. In May a 52-year-old Clevedon vicar was jailed for five and a half years after being found guilty of ten counts of indecent assault, one of sexual assault with a girl under 13 and one of sexual activities with a child.
One week earlier former choirmaster Peter Halliday was jailed for two and a half years for sexually abusing young boys in the 1980s.
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