SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
February 6, 2019
By Thomas G. Plante
Catholic bishops from across the globe will meet Feb. 21-24 at the Vatican for a much anticipated conference to discuss global clerical sexual abuse. While clerics might know a lot about theology, church history and church law, they aren’t experts on research and best practices in child protection, child abuse or pedophilia. Those experts aren’t invited to the conference. And it is a shame.
Without experts in attendance and actively involved, we can expect that the most conservative voices in the church will try to blame the clergy sexual abuse crisis on homosexual clerics or liberal approaches to church teachings that began to get traction after Vatican II. The most liberal voices may blame the problem on mandated clerical celibacy or the fact that only men can be priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
Both groups would be wrong. And their views may lead to unproductive or counterproductive directions for interventions and resolutions of this problem that have plagued the institution for too long.
What the experts might say, if invited and allowed to speak, would be that best practices in child protection and screening adults who work with children are readily available and can be enlisted to make the church and other organizations much safer than they are now. Among the most commonsense solutions: incorporate careful screening and training of those who work with children and teens into any plan to protect minors both in and outside of church communities.
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