By Verghese V Joseph –
Vatican: Pope Francis on Friday launched a task force to help Bishops’ Conferences prepare and update child protection guidelines. This comes soon on the heels of a plan announced at last year’s Meeting for the Protection of Minors in the Church.
At a meeting held in Vatican during February 21-24, 2019 on “The protection of minors in the Church”, the Holy Father Francis had announced his intention to set up an operational working group (task force) in order to assist the Episcopal Conferences, Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life in the preparation and updating of guidelines on the protection of minors.
In a statement released on Friday, the Holy See Press Office explained that the task force will be supervised by Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, together with the members of the organizing Committee for last year’s Meeting: Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Archbishop of Malta and Deputy Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Father Hans Zollner, SJ, Dean of the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The task force will assist Episcopal Conferences, Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life; at their request, in the preparation and updating of the guidelines on the protection of minors, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as with what is established by the current canonical legislation on abuse and, in particular, with the Motu proprio “Vos estis lux mundi”, of 7 May 2019.
The preparation of the guidelines will in any case remain within the competence and responsibility of the respective Episcopal Conferences, Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The working group will have a duration of two years, starting from February 24, 2020. It is composed of a Coordinator, Dr. Andrew Azzopardi, Head of the Safeguarding Commission for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults of the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province, and by some experts in canon law of different nationalities.
The Coordinator will report quarterly on the activities carried out by the task force to the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State.
The activities of the working group are supported by a special fund made up of benefactors.
Requests for requests for assistance from Episcopal Conferences, Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, can be sent to the appropriate e-mail address ([email protected]).