Vatican Radio
June 18, 2011
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=497325
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“Sexual abuse by a priest is a crime and an abuse of spiritual power”, affirmed Msgr. Charles Sicluna, Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Saturday morning to press at the launch of a Symposium titled “Towards healing and renewal”.
The gathering, which will take place February 6th to 9th 2012, is being organised by the Pontifical Gregorian University, with the gaol of formulating a global response to the scandal of sex abuse within the Church.
Research and study into sex abuse will also take place through the creation of a new “multi-lingual e-learning centre” also launched Saturday. The centre has been set up to improve information and prevention. Moreover from now to February, the centre’s work will be made public with regular press releases.
“We want to face this problem from the point of view of ‘state of the art’ science, psychology, psychiatry”, explains Fr. Hans Zollner, Dean of the Institute of Psychology and Head of the Preparatory Committee of the Symposium, “but also from the point of view of jurisprudence, even within the Church, so taking into consideration the norms now in vigour following the CDF Circular Letter. We want to help Bishops Conferences develop guidelines on how to deal with abusers and ensure that these cases aren’t repeated and, most important of all, try to help – as much as is possible – to heal the wounds of the victims”.
Speaking to Vatican Radio, Msgr. Scicluna praised the Symposium as a tool that will aid Bishops Conferences worldwide in their attempt to draw up comprehensive guidelines for safeguarding against abuse in the Church, as demanded by the May 2011 CDF Circular Letter.
“Some bishops have expressed the need for tools to help deepen their understanding of the problem. They have also requested to be able to share the experiences of other Bishop’s Conferences”. The Symposium he adds “will benefit from experts from all sectors and every part of the world”. Msgr. Scicluna affirms that the specific experience of nations such as the United States and Ireland will be looked at, and points to the participation of one of the “maximum authorities”, US native Msgr. Steve Rosetti as well as Professor Baroness Sheila Hollins, from the UK, who accompanied Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor on the Apostolic Visitation to the Archdiocese of Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Questioned as to whether we could now speak of a decisive strategy on the part of the Vatican in the fight against paedophilia within the Church, Msgr Scicluna responded that the Circular Letter sends “a very strong signal of determination, born of the Pope’s own determination to look the sin and crime of paedophilia in the face, while at the same time affirming that we must be able to give a clear, credible, firm and effective response to this problem within the Church. To be witnesses not only to respect for the innocence of children and young people, but also to the demands of truth in justice”.
“There are so many different aspects to what the Church needs to do and I think that the Symposium, is going to help by sharing experiences across the world, by sharing resources which will be usable across the world”, Baroness Shelia Hollins told Lydia O’Kane.
The professor of psychiatry at St George's University in London is one of the many experts who will make an intervention at the February Symposium, alongside a victim of abuse. On Saturday the Professor also shared her recent experience of listening to victims in Ireland. “One of the main problems in the process of healing and renewal is that the victims feel they are not really being heard”, she revealed. “It’s not enough to register shock at their stories, we need to go beyond and listen to them with out whole bodies. I think people do need to hear 'sorry'. We have a focus on the importance of confession, there has to be an admission of guilt first. And you know it's quite difficult if the admission of guilt isn’t there for even ‘sorry’ to have meaning”.
Baroness also surprised press Saturday morning by saying that despite the wounded anger that many still feel towards the Church in Ireland, she left the island nation hopeful. “I think one of the things that I was most impressed by and surprised by in Ireland, was the fact that so many people have retained a deep faith and have real hope that things are going to get better, despite the pain and suffering that they have experienced for themselves. Although there are others who have lost both their faith and tehir hope, so its a double loss”.
Listen to Emer McCarthy's report: MP3
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