Bishops unveil sweeping reforms to protect kids from sexual predators
Canada’s Catholic bishops have released sweeping new national guidelines to protect children from sexual predators in the church, with standards including tougher background checks, lifting gag orders and ending internal investigations of abuse. Bishop Ronald Fabbro, from the Diocese of London, said the “key lesson” of the document is that the church must listen to victims. “What happened in the past was enabled because victims when they came forward were not believed, or people had this sense that a priest couldn’t do this,” said Fabbro, who wrote the forward to the guidelines.
“Now we recognize that, when victims come forward, we have to listen to them. It takes a lot of courage for a victim to come forward accusing a priest of sexual abuse. So we have to welcome that.
“We have to respect the victims. We have to listen to them.
“We have to offer them care, recognizing that we really need them to come forward if we’re going to put a stop to this.”
The 184-page document, called Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation and Transformation, was made public on Thursday. “Sexual abuse is a profound contradiction of everything that Jesus Christ represents,” the document states.
It contains 69 recommendations based on “nine lessons” the bishops have learned over the past quarter century.
“Chief among these is that victims must come first,” according to a statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishops from across Canada unanimouslyadoptedtheguidelines Sept. 27 during their annual Plenary Assembly. The Pope also gave the document his stamp of approval. The first of the 69 recommendations is that “bishops and major superiors will endeavour to ensure that victims coming forward for the first time are received in a non-judgmental pastoral encounter where they are welcomed and commended for their courage.”
The guidelines include putting an end to the requirement of confidentiality clauses in abuse case settlements, and to waive those given in the past.
They also call for full co-operation with civil authorities, tougher background checks on staff and volunteers, and ensuring better safeguards by requiring a third-party audit of policies and protocols at least once every four years. The document has been in the works for several years and builds on the previous guidelines, called From Pain to Hope, originally penned in 1992.
“This document is more comprehensive and it tries to give a best understanding of what we’ve learned over the 25 years since From Pain to Hope,” said Fabbro. “It is trying to get at the causes and trying to get at what are the best practices that people are using to stop this. And what have we learned as a church?” From Pain to Hope, last updated in 2007, allowed for the eventual return of offending priests to the ministry. In a video that accompanied the release of Thursday’s guidelines, Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that will no longer occur.
“We know not to return offenders back to regular ministry, where they are likely to reoffend,” he said. “This policy has been in force for some time, but the message needs to be stated with even greater emphasis.” With the new guidelines, the CCCB said, Canada’s bishops “reaffirm their commitment” to making improvements with an emphasis on “long-term prevention and preemptive action.”
The document comes with a pledge from bishops to enforce the new standards. If a bishop learns of an allegation, said Fabbro, he is “obliged” to report it to Rome. Under the new guidelines, he’s also obliged to have a delegate handle it. “The bishop is not supposed to be handling it himself,” said Fabbro. The delegate must bring the complaint to an advisory committee of clergy and lay people who are experts in child protection.
A bishop who fails to properly handle a report of abuse could be forced to resign, said Fabbro. “We’ve learned that we have to involve our lay people,” said Fabbro. “The bishop can’t do this alone. He needs to work with his priests and lay people, and together we have to be using the insights of the document to work together to put an end to this in our diocese.”