On Thursday last week, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) released a new document titled: Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A call to the Catholic Faithful for Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation. The 200 page document issues guidelines that aim to ensure that every Roman Catholic diocese across Canada develops strict protocols to safeguard minors and assist victims that come forward.
The document expresses lessons learned by the bishops in their pastoral experience with sexual abuse victims. It provides guidelines for updating or creating diocesan norms for responding to sexual abuse and offers resources along with 69 concrete recommendations for the prevention of sexual abuse and preventative action for the protection of minors.
Hard copies of Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse will be distributed to all parishes and Catholic organizations within the Archdiocese in the coming weeks. Archbishop Mancini will implement the document with the help of local people in ministry by updating the existing protocol to put into practice both the spirit and content of the new guidelines. Our Archbishop hopes that its content will reinforce the message of zero tolerance and that all Canadian bishops have a spiritual, moral, and legal duty to protect minors and vulnerable persons and must take the necessary means to accomplish this.
In developing the final document the CCCB sought consultation from a wide spectrum of contributors that included: survivors of sexual abuse, clergy, lay women and lay men, and professionals in the area of child protection, psychology, and social work with specific experience and expertise protecting minors from sexual abuse.
Since 2010 the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth has followed a firm responsible ministry protocol with clear steps that focus on creating a safe ministry environment for children and vulnerable individuals. The protocol is available on the archdiocesan website: www.halifaxyarmouth.org on the Responsible Ministry page or click here.
