VATICAN (CNS): Gathering information and statistics on the sexual abuse of minors is an important tool for assessing established responses and for crafting recommendations to fix a failed system, Seán Cardinal O’Malley of Boston, the United States, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said in a message on November 18.
“We cannot repair what we do not recognise. We cannot restore a broken trust if we do not address the heart of the matter. This requires honest investigation, independent inquiry and informed action,” the cardinal said.
The message was sent to a conference marking the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse—held each November 18 and promoted by the Council of Europe. The conference, held in Rome, was sponsored by the Telefono Azzurro abuse help line in Italy, whose founder and president is Ernesto Caffo, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and a member of the papal commission.
For the majority—70 per cent to 85 per cent—of known cases, the sexual exploitation and abuse of children is perpetrated by someone the child knows, that is, someone “in their circle of trust,” said the council, which promotes human rights through international conventions.
And, “in 90 per cent of the cases, the sexual violence acts are not reported to the police,” it said on its website, coe.int.
The theme for the observance in 2021 focused on Making the circle of trust truly safe for children.
The World Health Organisation estimates that one in five women and one in 13 men experience sexual abuse before their 18th birthday and that at least 60 per cent of child sexual abuse victims and survivors never disclose their abuse, Cardinal O’Malley said in his message.
‘We cannot repair what we do not recognise. We cannot restore a broken trust if we do not address the heart of the matter. This requires honest investigation, independent inquiry and informed action’
Sean Cardinal O’Malley
“The most recent data that we have received on the scope of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is no less grim,” he said, citing recent findings by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church in France. That report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests since 1950, and more than 100,000 others were abused by lay employees of Church institutions.
“In Australia, 40 per cent of the child sexual abuse that took place in the period under review of the Royal Commission of Inquiry occurred in an area related to the Catholic Church,” the cardinal added.
“These are astounding statistics. But we cannot allow our reaction to them to obscure their purpose: To assess the measures taken by the Church to treat this scourge and to make all useful recommendations for the transformation of a failed system based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis,” he wrote.
The Church must be open to learning from civil society and academia “in terms of scientific models of research for a more informed approach to our prevention strategies and protection policies, on the ground and online,” he said.
The Church must also work with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, he said, saying both the commission and Pope Francis believe these men and women “hold the key to helping us implement meaningful and effective policies and procedures.”
November 18 also marked the Catholic Church in Italy’s first National Day of Prayer for Victims and Survivors. Responding to a proposal by the commission based on a survivor’s request, Pope Francis asked in 2016 that each episcopal conference around the world choose an appropriate day to hold a “day of prayer” for the victims and survivors of sexual abuse.
Pope Francis highlighted the new national day during his general audience November 17, saying he hoped the initiative would be “an opportunity for reflection, awareness and prayer to support the paths of human and spiritual recovery of the victims.”
He also emphasised the importance and “the inescapable duty of those who have educational responsibilities in the family, the parish, the school, in recreational and athletic environments, to protect and respect the adolescents and young people entrusted to them,” since most abuse happens in these places.
