Safeguarding is ‘not a negotiable matter’

WORK to guard kids and weak individuals from abuse is “not a negotiable matter”, the Pope has stated. He was addressing the primary nationwide assembly, held on Saturday, of diocesan and regional representatives of the Italian Church’s Child Protection Services and Listening Centres, Vatican News stories. “We cannot stop in our action to protect minors and vulnerable people and, at the same time, to combat any form of abuse, whether sexual, of power, or of conscience.” This was the accountability of “the entire community”, and “no silence or concealment can be accepted on the subject of abuse.” He spoke of the significance of listening to victims, and prosecuting the responsible. “What you are doing is precious both for the victims and for the entire ecclesial community,” he stated. Last 12 months, it was reported that about two-thirds of dioceses in Italy had arrange listening centres, and 20,000 individuals had taken half in safeguarding coaching (News, 25 November 2022).

Pope responds to German theologians’ issues
POPE FRANCIS has expressed issues about steps taken within the Roman Catholic Church in Germany that “threaten to move further away from the common path of the universal Church”. He was responding, on 10 November, to a letter from 4 girls students in Germany who had withdrawn from the German Synodal Path. The Path concluded this 12 months, having thought of the blessing of same-sex {couples}, priestly celibacy, clerical energy, abuse, and the opportunity of the priestly ordination of girls, amongst different points. The girls expressed explicit concern about proposals to ascertain a synodal committee “aimed at preparing the introduction of a directive and decision-making council”. In his response, the Pope stated that such a physique “cannot be harmonised with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church” and had been prohibited by the Holy See, which has emphasised that the synodal course of can’t make doctrinal selections. He thanked the ladies for his or her work and “witness of faith”.