VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Vatican’s new sexual crimes prosecutor, Fr. Oliver, confirmed this. The number of reports filed for sexual abuse against minors by priests reached its peak in 2004, at 800
Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City
A year has passed since the “Towards Healing and Renewal” Symposium – organised by the Gregorian University with the support of numerous dioceses and the Vatican Curia – which was intended as an occasion to reflect on and share the progress made by the Catholic Church in dealing with the sex abuse scandal.
Twelve months on, a meeting was held at the same university for the presentation – in 12 languages – of the proceedings of that Symposium. An occasion to look at all that has been done in terms of prevention and training since the suggestions were made at the Symposium. The Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection is putting together an online programme – the project is still in its experimental phase which started a few months ago – that will allow all Church staff, from priests to catechists to volunteers, to prevent and respond to cases of abuse.
The goal of this initiative – which for the moment is being aimed at 250 people in 8 pilot countries – is to show that “we intend to take the word “path” seriously,” said Fr. Hans Zollner, head of the university’s Institute of Psychology and one of the Symposium’s promoters on 2012. The “road [to combating sex abuse against minors in the Church] will be long and difficult because of resistance, conflicts and tensions,” the Jesuit admitted, but the Gregorian University’s initiative “has created increased awareness of the extent of the problem in many parts of the world” and was “a crucial step in the efforts being made to achieve justice for abuse victims.”
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