Rome, September 11, 2024. The Church gives much attention to the issue of child and vulnerable adult abuse. Our Chapter has also addressed this issue, especially about prevention. On the afternoon of September 10th, Dr. Adriana Dominguez, director of Praesidium, was present in the Aula Magna, offering introductory training on prevention of abuse toward children and vulnerable persons.
She initiated the presentation with a video outlining different issues of risk and abuse in various settings, both domestic and professional. Together with the capitulars, an attempt was made to make an analysis of the problems that the statistics indicated were most relevant, exploring some avenues for both prevention and accompaniment.
To further explore this topic today, Fr. Carlos Alonso Garcia, an Augustinian friar from Spain, was welcomed to the Aula to speak on “Child Protection and Abuse Prevention.” The cleric divided his talk into two parts, “lessons learned and lessons to be learned.” In the first part, he showed, through statistical data, that the phenomenon of abuse “is not only a Western problem but a human one and a general issue that affects all continents,” and does not touch a specific setting but is widespread and found across every society.
He then analyzed the three parties involved in the issue: the victim, the abuser and the institution. For each of them, he devoted time to explore the most recurring dynamics, both for the victims, the abusers, and the possible positions of the institution. About the process of accompanying and helping the people involved, Fr. Carlos presented some points, where first and foremost there is the duty of care at various levels towards the victims, but also there is the importance of taking care of the whole environment, that is, the people who interact in various capacities at the places frequented by minors, with seriousness and commitment; it is also important not to fall into easy populism, or positions, which do not favor the emergence of the truth of the behaviors.
Quoting Pope Francis, Fr. Carlos concluded his speech by saying, even though the Church is experiencing a great crisis, we must not lose hope. “There is life for the victims, there is life also for the aggressors, and there is life also for the institutions.” Above all, the Church is called to receive everyone with compassion and hope, confident in the words of Jesus to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
At the end of the presentation came a period for questions and answers for better clarification on the report.
