New Church Policy Aims to Curb Sexual Abuse

By Jason Warick
Leader-Post
March 11, 2013

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/church+policy+aims+curb+sexual+abuse/8077540/story.html

Saskatoon and area Roman Catholic priests and volunteers will soon be prohibited from meeting behind closed doors with parishioners.

The main goal of the new policy, which also mandates criminal record checks and directing those with criminal allegations to police first, is to eliminate sexual abuse, said Blake Sittler, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon's co-ordinator of care. It should also protect priests and other workers from false allegations, he said.

"This is a major paradigm shift," Sittler said in an interview Sunday after attending a Calgary conference on the issue.

"We do not want this (abuse) to happen. It disgusts and disappoints us as well."

Many who were abused by priests, including two of the victims of former Saskatoon priest Rev. William Hodgson Marshall, remain skeptical that the church has stopped covering for abusers.

Sittler said he understands that position, but is working to make the church safer in both reality and perception. He said church officials are now trying to do the opposite of past practices.

"There have been cover-ups. It is disturbing," he said.

The Saskatoon policy, ratified in November 2012, is being implemented in the coming months. By fall, priests will no longer be allowed to visit the ill, disabled or elderly in their homes without another volunteer present. Confessions in the church will no longer be permitted behind closed doors or curtains. The door must be open, or a window must be installed if there is none.

"It's still confidential, but it's not in private," Sittler said.

Sittler said the system has worked in Calgary, where the pairs system was adopted two years ago. Many feared it would require too many volunteers, but they've actually had more interest from people wanting to work in a team setting, he said.

Sittler noted Jesus sent out his disciples to minister in pairs, and this is an "opportunity to get back to that."

The new policy also mandates criminal record checks for any priests, staff or volunteers who work with vulnerable people. And any parishioner who has been subjected to sexual abuse or any criminal act will be encouraged to go to the police first.

Many sports teams, service organizations and others took similar measures years ago.

Sittler said the diocese had already been doing many of these things informally, and noted this is the latest policy stemming from a process that began in 1992. But this is the first time the provisions have been formalized in diocese policy.

"In some ways, are we late in the game? That's a fair critique," he said. "(But) we're dealing with it in a very real way, a very serious way. We're making that effort articulated."