Sensitive content
This site contains sensitive content that includes references to sexual violence.
Latest
How legislative and policy reform can protect children from sexual violence in religious spaces
I'm one of the founding members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA). It's a voluntarily-led global justice project present in five continents and 23 countries. Our mission is to put an end to the systems that allow violence against children in faith-based institutions, especially in the Catholic Church.
The Vatican City is the spiritual and administrative center of the Roman Catholic Church, where the Pope is the head of state. Vatican City is also the world's smallest country, both by area and population, occupying an area of 0.4 square kilometers. Yet this small country has power over all of the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world. The Church is governed by Canon Law, which regulates the church's internal administration and hierarchy.
Calling for legislative and policy reform at the global level
Our role at ECA has been to examine and advocate for the reform of the laws within the Church that have allowed the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children and perpetuated the cover-up of those crimes.
In 2014, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child issued a series of recommendations to the Vatican to ensure the safety of children who are part of the Catholic Church:
- Canon Law reform.
- An independent mechanism for monitoring children's rights and the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in managing sexual abuse.
- Transparent sharing of archives related to the management of sexual abuse
- Immediate removal of perpetrators of child sexual abuse from the Ministry.
This call by the UN was echoed by other international bodies and governments from around the world. That same year the United Nations Convention Against Torture issued a report calling for effective monitoring of any suspected abusers, with penalties including dismissal from clerical service for abusers. Multiple countries have issued reports following widespread investigations into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, including Australia, France, England, and Wales. Many have recommended a reclassification of abuse as a Canonical crime against a child, rather than a breach of celibacy.
"ECA has presented several horrendous cases of clergy sexual abuse to both committees at the United Nations, including the Provalo case in Argentina involving the abuse of deaf and mute children. The Vatican was expected to give its national report to the United Nations in 2017. We are all still waiting."
A reason for hope
However, there is some hope. This year, ECA has been able to form a historic collaboration with the Catholic Church's top anti-abuse experts and with Canon Law lawyers to craft a zero-tolerance law for the protection of children.
Currently, sexual abuse by clergy is viewed in Canon Law as a violation of the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. But we know that what happened to survivors of clergy sexual abuse like myself was a crime against our dignity and not adultery, which implies consent. Instead, the zero-tolerance law we’re crafting identifies sexual abuse as a grave crime against the life, dignity, and freedom of victims.
To ensure the effective application of this law there must be:
- A public declaration by the Head of the Catholic Church in which he promises both to apply the zero-tolerance law consistently without exception and to release sufficient information to demonstrate compliance.
- A guarantee of an independent compliance agency be set up – additionally, we're recommending a survivor network – to investigate, document, and publicly identify persons of authority in the Church who contributed through their negligence or intentional acts to conceal abusive priests.
While we propose that the zero tolerance law be universally binding, we understand that its implementation may be culturally adapted to reflect the diverse cultural customs, values, and beliefs across the world's populations that the Catholic Church serves.
"We feel strongly that once the Catholic Church adopts a zero-tolerance law, other faith institutions will follow suit. Crucially, when developing new legislation and policy to end childhood sexual violence, survivor inclusion is vital to ensure these are fit for purpose."
This was so clearly highlighted in the recent Conference at the Council of Europe’s Fight Against Child Abuse in Institutions in Europe. On 26 January 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) took a historic step by calling for the recognition of abuse in institutions across Europe (Resolution 2533).
This decision emphasized the need for comprehensive reparation for all forms of violence against children, including sexual abuse, physical violence, and mistreatment in public, private, and religious institutions. Over 22,285 victims and survivors from all over the world shared their experiences through the Global Our Voice Survivor Survey, which contributed to the case for this landmark decision.
It takes all of us to create safe environments for our children, in churches or any other spaces. Leaders won’t hold themselves to account. That is our mandate that I invite you to take on.
