The protection of minors is fundamental for the Gospel itself to be credible. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors clearly underlines this in presenting its second annual report. Many steps forward in many countries around the world, according to the data of the Report, however, in Italy there is «a notable cultural resistance in dealing with abuse. Cultural taboos”, reads the text, “can make it difficult for victims/survivors and their families to talk about their experiences and report them to the authorities”. In particular, the Pontifical Commission “regrets not having met the regional delegations of Abruzzo-Molise, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Marche, Piedmont, Puglia, Triveneto and Umbria and not having received responses to its five-year questionnaire on protection from all the dioceses”. The Report highlights that «the National Protection Service recorded the presence of working groups in 144 out of 226 dioceses». Not only that, in Italy there is «a significant disparity in the staff and resources assigned to many of these offices. The fact that several of them are activated only when necessary and are not equipped with stable and sufficient staff and financial resources represents”, therefore, “a serious risk for the implementation of protection measures and can, in fact, complicate the processes of exercising institutional responsibility”. And therefore «although some local Churches have managed to create pioneering solutions and even establish fruitful collaborations with civil society, strong disparities remain between the different regions. But, on the positive side, it highlights the establishment of a comprehensive network of offices and structures in the dioceses for reporting and assistance which covers almost all the dioceses”. Furthermore, the Pontifical Commission denounces, “the Italian Episcopal Conference does not have a centralized office for receiving reports/complaints and analyzing, in a timely and comparative way, the correct management of cases in the different regions, in order to promote the uniform and effective development of services relating to complaints”. The Italian case is particularly under the spotlight also due to the presence in our country of «seminarians, priests, postulants, novices and religious who come from all over the world to receive education and training in Italy. This poses the challenge of establishing effective background check procedures prior to their integration into diverse local communities. Added to this is the further challenge of promoting robust safeguarding training that is also culturally sensitive, given the differences between people from abroad. This training is essential for their well-being and preparation, as well as for the well-being and safety of minors and vulnerable adults who interact with them.”
Furthermore, at both Italian level, the Commission underlines «the importance of promoting and developing dialogue with victims/survivors, their families and the associations that represent them as well as expanding the opportunities for a frank and constructive dialogue inherent to their concerns, expectations and experiences, in particular with regard to the management of cases, reparation and the exercise of institutional responsibility by the Church. The above would strengthen the first important steps taken to facilitate a stable dialogue between the Italian Church and victims/survivors, as promoted in the five-year work plan of the National Protection Service”. The Report, however, “recognizes the sincere efforts made in the field of protection in local Churches, as well as in numerous other pastoral and social contexts and related to the prevention of abuse”.
In Italy, as in the rest of the world, to combat abuse it is “fundamental to propose sexual training in seminaries”, underlined Monsignor Luis Manuel Ali Herrera, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, during the press conference to present the Report in the Vatican. The relationship with the media is also important, as it helps to encourage victims to report and, above all, to listen. «Listening to victims and survivors is the first step towards creating a safer Church for our children. We owe an honest response to the countless victims and survivors, known and unknown, who had the courage to raise the alarm about abuse, despite unimaginable obstacles,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, a jurist in charge of drafting the Report.
The volume records an increase in reports in Europe and the Americas, where victims feel more protected in bringing their cases to light, while there is an underreporting in Africa and Asia. “In recent years we have walked, several steps have been taken”, concluded Monsignor Luis Manuel Ali Herrera, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, “I know that we are not acting with the speed that we would all desire but we are acting”.
