Fr Zollner: Do justice for
victims of clerical sexual abuse
 |
| Fr Hans Zollner (ANSA) |
Fr Hans Zollner, SJ, President of the Centre for Child
Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, discusses the initial
results he has observed since the Meeting on the “Protection of Minors in the
Church”.
By Francesca Merlo
The Bishops who participated in the Meeting on the
“Protection of Minors in the Church” at the end of February have “taken some
initiatives”, says Fr Hans Zollner, SJ, President of the Centre for Child
Protection in an interview with Vatican News’ Gudrun Sailer.
Some Bishops, he says, have revised their guidelines to find
and implement ways of “cooperating with Civil Authorities”.
Fr Zollner explains that Presidents of Catholic Bishops’
Conferences are seeking the help of the Centre for Child Protection in the formation
of Church personnel on the ground, after many of them were reduced to tears in
hearing testimonies of survivors of child sexual abuse.
A message
In the three weeks since the end of the Meeting, Fr Zollner
says that he has seen and heard the steps the Bishops are taking. They have not
simply “communicated what happened during those three and a half days” of the
Meeting, but are beginning to act. This, he says, is “the most important
outcome that I could have hoped for”, because, he explains, it proves that the
Presidents of Bishops' Conferences “received a message”.
The message, he continues, is this: “Do everything you can
to do justice to the victims. Listen to victims”, and do whatever you can to
ensure that safeguarding is implemented “in your countries, in your dioceses
and in your congregations”.
The message has been received, and he adds that it has been
“delivered back home”.
Voices and media
Fr Zollner talks about the importance of both the voices of
the victims and the media. Thanks to them, “the topic of child sexual abuse
within the Catholic Church has come to the surface and is now present all over
the world”.
Now we know that it is on the agenda of discussion of
Bishops’’ Conferences, of Dioceses, and of religious congregations. “Nobody can
avoid this anymore”, he says.
The constant attention the issue is receiving from both
Catholic and secualr media is helpful, he insists. Fr Zollner says it conveys
clearly the message that “this topic is not something that will go away easily
and fast”. Instead, he says, “it will stay with us and it will need much
attention, over years and probably decades.”
This, according to Fr Zollner, means that the Catholic
Church over time will develop common standards in how guidelines are written,
how they are implemented, and how safeguarding education is taken forward.
A lack of empathy, of response
Fr Zollner reiterates the importance of hearing the voices
of the victims. He explains that hearing their testimonies was “searing, it was
brutal, it was absolutely devastating”. But it was not only what happened to
them that was so awful. According to Fr Zollner, it was the lack of empathy,
the lack of response, and the lack of clarity in the procedures in response to
the cases of allegations that were presented by the victims, themselves, to the
Bishops.
“You could hear a pin drop when the victims spoke,” says Fr
Zollner. The emotional reactions and the energy “that is absolutely connected”
to hearing the voices of the victims is crucial. These, Fr Zollner hopes,
should “help to take up their points”, in terms of “rethinking the structure of
the Church, rethinking accountability”, and, finally, “enforcing it.”
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