The Catholic Church is beginning a “long journey” towards atoning for the harm done to children across the world, with a conference to be held at The Vatican.
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Next week, the pope will join bishops at a synod-like summit to discuss protecting children and ways to prepare an international response.
This comes after worldwide revelations regarding the sexual and physical abuse of children by priests.
A royal commission in Australia uncovered widespread abuse, culminating in changes to laws and the advent of the National Redress Scheme, intending to help survivors.
The summit, which begins on February 21, features the head of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Father Hans Zollner, as well as representatives from the world’s bishops conferences.
Father Zollner has previously visited Ballarat and met with survivors.
Australia will be represented by the Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge.
Vatican officials have begun lowering expectations for the summit - the Catholic Register reported on Wednesday that it could be more about raising awareness of the issues, while a Vigil for Justice, organised by victims, is planned at the same time.
An idea already discussed is creating a task force of child protection experts in every continent to help bishops, and Pope Francis himself said as well as “concrete cases”, the church has to “discover the dynamics that made it possible for such attitudes and evils to occur”.
However, one survivor based in Ballarat, Andrew Collins, said while he thought it was good the summit was occuring at all, he didn’t think the church had gone far enough yet.
“We know from the royal commission that the pope can end all this tomorrow, he has the documents with the perpetrators, he can get rid of them - why are they still there? Why haven’t they been excommunicated?” he said.
“If they come out with meaningless words again, my gut tells me they will, all they’ll do is disappoint people.”
It was up to parishioners to encourage change, he added.
“It’s not just the hierarchy, it’s the parishioners who need to stand up and say enough,” he said.
“It’s about action, it has to be about action, not just words - the pope’s come out with a lot of wonderful things he’s said, but nothing’s been done.
“Things move slowly but that’s not good enough, it’s done nothing except continue the abuse of children.”
The Blue Knot Foundation supports people who have survived childhood trauma, and its president, Dr Cathy Kezelman AM, agreed with Mr Collins.
“An announcement of a summit on child protection being held at the Vatican is to be welcomed. So are the expressed daily themes of responsibility, accountability and transparency,” she said.
“There is indeed a global crisis in the church related to child sexual abuse.
“The time for words has passed. This is not a simple process; it needs ongoing iterative change, with external scrutiny on all continents.”
Dr Kezelman noted any significant effort would need external scrutiny.
“In Australia, Catholic Church victims were significantly overrepresented in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse. Multiple recommendations were made specifically to the Catholic Church – will they feature in this summit or is this an internal process once again?”
The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat’s Michael Myers said parishes in the area would be audited in May by Catholic Professional Standards Limited, an organisation set-up by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
“Ballarat hasn’t been audited before - this body’s about 18 months old, they’ve just developed and released their standards,” he said.
“The auditors will send out questionnaires to learn about what we have and what ministries we have for children, how we interact with children in the diocese.
“I am satisfied that a quarter of the parishes is a good proportion to audit, bearing in mind that’s what auditors do.”
Need support? Phone the Blue Knot helpline on 1300 657 380 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Sunday, or email helpline@blueknot.org.au
