Card Parolin addresses Child Dignity in the Digital
World conference
(Vatican
Radio) Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin on
Tuesday addressed the Child
Dignity in the Digital World world congress being held at Rome’s
Pontifical Gregorian University this week. In his speech to the conference the
Cardinal spoke about "The Holy See and Its Commitment to Combatting Sex
Abuse Online".
Please find the English translation of Cardinal Parolin's
speech:
Dear President of the Senate, Your Eminences, Excellencies,
Dear Father General, Ambassadors, Father Rector, Academic Authorities and
Professors, Dear Friends, I thank you for inviting me to speak at the opening
of this important Congress, thus allowing me to convey the greetings and
appreciation of His Holiness Pope Francis and of the Holy See for
this initiative. It is an event that is hosted and organized, along with other
laudable events, by a prestigious Pontifical University.
I greet the distinguished persons and institutions who are
participating in this initiative, and I express my gratitude to all those who
have contributed concretely to the organization and planning of this Congress.
Above all, I wish to express my appreciation for having chosen the topic that
will be discussed: the dignity of the child in the digital world. The majority
of you, who have worked for a long time in this field, are well aware that the
sexual abuse of minors constitutes a vast and widespread phenomenon. Over the
past few decades, this tragic reality has come powerfully to the fore in the
Catholic Church and extremely grave facts have emerged. The Church has become
increasingly aware of the harm experienced by the victims, of their suffering
and of the need to listen to them, in order to work on various fronts; these
include: a wide range of interventions which must be carried out in order to
heal wounds, restore justice, prevent crimes and form educators and persons who
deal with minors, with a view to spreading and consolidating a new culture of
child protection – a real safeguarding – that effectively guarantees they can
grow up in a healthy and safe environment. This is a task requiring deep human
care, competence and tenacity; experience tells us that where this commitment
is consistent and continuous, the fruits that will come of it are positive and
encouraging. The Church’s effort in this sense, even when society in general
has not yet developed the necessary awareness, must continue, must be expanded
and deepened, with clarity and firmness, so that the dignity and rights of
minors may be protected and defended with much greater attentiveness and
effectiveness than was done in the past. In this venue, we want to share the
experience we have acquired, so that it may prove useful for an ever greater
good, thanks to collaboration with all of you. The world into which human
persons are today born and raised is characterized, ever more deeply and
pervasively, by the development and ubiquity of new communications technologies
and new instruments for their use. Handheld phones and tablets and other
devices have come to be part of the daily life of an ever greater number of
people; these users are ever younger, so much so that we can speak of the young
generations as “digital natives.” This has spread to every part of the world, reaching
even areas where economic and social development are as yet inadequate and
uneven.
The phenomenon is now global and so we speak of a “digital
world.” We now realize that, supported by ever greater evidence, the scourge of
offenses against the dignity of minors, as with so many other dramatic problems
in today’s world, spreads through and aligns itself within the new parameters
of the digital world. This plague meanders and infiltrates along a labyrinth of
paths and through deep, hidden layers of reality. The digital world is not, in
fact, a separate part of the world: it is an integral part of the unique
reality of the world. Minors who grow up in it are exposed to new risks, or
rather, to old risks manifested in new ways; and the culture of the protection
of minors that we want to spread must be sufficiently able to address today’s
problems. Looking at our contemporary world, Pope Francis continually reminds
us that the forms of abuse and violence against minors proliferate in an
interwoven manner: the traffic of minors and of human persons generally, the
phenomenon of child soldiers, the absence of even the most elementary
education, the fact that small children are the first victims of hunger and
extreme poverty. On the day dedicated by the Church to the memory of the Holy
Innocents, Pope Francis wrote: “We need the courage to respond to this reality,
to arise and take it firmly in hand (cf. Mt 2:20)… [We need] the courage to
guard this joyfrom the new Herods of our time, who devour the innocence of our
children. An innocence stolen from them by the oppression of illegal slave
labour, prostitution and exploitation. An innocence shattered by wars and
forced migration, with the great loss that this entails. Thousands of our
children have fallen into the hands of gangs, criminal organizations and
merchants of death, who only devour and exploit their neediness” (Letter to
Bishops, 28 December 2016). In all these situations, the horrendous reality of
sexual abuse is nearly always present, as a common aspect and consequence of
multifaceted and widespread violence that ignores all respect, not only for the
body, but more so for the soul, for the profound vulnerability and dignity of
every child, of every young boy and girl of whatever nation. And so we recognize
the challenges, but realize too that even though we have learned a great deal
with respect to this phenomenon, it remains important to understand it ever
better, and, more than anything, to continue to make our understanding of the
phenomenon accessible to all those who promote the protection of the rights of
minors. Only in this way can we effectively fight the battle to protect minors
in our digitalized world. The phenomena we observe reach levels of shocking
gravity; their dimensions and the speed with which they spread surpass our
imagination. Here then is the second reason for my appreciation of the method
employed by this Congress: calling together representatives from the various
fields of scientific research as well as those who are actively committed to
the protection of minors; representatives of leading companies in technological
development and communications characteristic of the digital world; those
responsible for the common good of human society; legislators, politicians, and
law enforcement agencies called upon to combat crimes and abuses; religious
leaders and leaders of civil society organizations committed to working for
minors. Like some of the other speakers, I too want to insist on a
distinguishing characteristic of this assembly, one that makes it new and even
unique, namely: establishing a dialogue between the many competent and
meritorious people who have made their own the cause of defending the dignity
of minors in the digital world. They are doing this by channelling their energies
towards a shared commitment in order to overcome the sense of disorientation
and powerlessness when faced with such a markedly difficult challenge, and to
help us to intervene creatively. Once this basic strategic territory has been
identified, we must work to regain control of the development of the digital
world, so that it may be at the service of the dignity of minors, and thus of
the whole human race of tomorrow. For the minors of today are the entirety of
tomorrow’s human race.
Following the research and understanding of these problems
there must come a commitment and a far-seeing, courageous endeavour on the part
of all of us here present; there must also be an appeal for the cooperation of
every person in a position of responsibility, in the various countries and
sectors of society. Perhaps I may be permitted to offer some further
reflections, which I propose for your consideration. The demographic
development of humanity is particularly rapid in many countries where economic
and social progress is still lacking or uneven. Hundreds of millions of
children and young people are growing up in a digital world within a context
that is still largely undeveloped. Their parents and teachers may not, perhaps,
be culturally equipped to accompany them and help them to grow up in this
world, whereas their political leaders will often not know where to begin in
order to protect them. We have a responsibility to these children too, as do
the companies that promote and drive the development of the digital world. With
its international, global and interdisciplinary perspective, this Congress must
take responsibility for those minors at the world’s “peripheries”, of which
Pope Francis continually speaks: peripheries that are in geographic areas of
greater economic poverty, but that are also found within wealthy societies
where there is considerable human and spiritual poverty, loneliness and a loss
of the meaning of life. It is not by chance that it is minors in all these
peripheries who are the preferred target of networks of exploitation and of
organized online violence on a global scale.
Both in society and in the Church, there has always been
insistence on the primary responsibility of the family and of the school in
guaranteeing minors a sound education so essential to the protection and
promotion of their dignity. This still very much applies today and every effort
must be made so that parents and educators may be increasingly able to
undertake their duties, even in the face of risks and challenges from the digital
world. There is, however, no doubt that in the modern context their ability to
influence the formation of young generations is proportionately far less than
in the past, and is often frustrated and overtaken by the continual wave of
messages and images that come to even the smallest children through countless
open avenues provided by the new media. For this reason too, responsibility
towards young generations must be shared fully by all the sectors of society
that you represent. Finally, we find ourselves hosted here by an institution
which depends on the Catholic Church and which is thus particularly attentive
to the moral and religious dimensions of the life and development of the human
person. I hope that your work may be able also to integrate these perspectives
into the shared work of reflection and commitment, and that from them you may
draw vigour, inspiration and motivation. For the rest, all of us surely agree
on what is affirmed in the second principle of the Universal Declaration of the
Rights of the Child, namely, that every child should have the means “to develop
physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal
manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity”. Moreover, as John Paul II
affirmed in 1990, on the occasion of the World Summit for Children, we stress
“the need to do much more to safeguard the well-being of the world’s children,
to enunciate the rights of the child and to protect those rights through
cultural and legislative actions imbued with respect for human life as a value
in itself, independently of sex, ethnic origin, social or cultural status, or
political or religious conviction” (Letter to J. Pérez de Cuellar, 22 September
1990. The Holy See adhered to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in
1990). The minors of whom we speak and whose dignity we wish to defend and
promote are human persons, and the value of each of them is unique and
unrepeatable. Each of them must be taken seriously and protected in this ever
more digitalized world, so that they may be able to fulfil the purpose of their
life, their destiny, their coming into the world. The destiny and the life of
each of them is supremely important, precious in the sight of human beings and
in the sight of God. According to Scripture, every human being is created “in
the image and likeness” of God. According to the New Testament, the Son of God
came among us as a vulnerable child, and in needy circumstances, assuming both
the fragility and the hope for a future that are intrinsic to an infant.
To disparage infancy and to abuse children is for the
Christian, therefore, not only a crime, but also – as Pope Francis has stated –
sacrilege, a profanation of that which is sacred, of the presence of God in
every human being. The forces that drive the technical and economic development
of the world seem unstoppable and, as we know, are perhaps often determined and
driven by economic and even very powerful political interests, which we must
not allow ourselves to be dominated by. The power of sexual desire that dwells
in the depth of the human mind and heart is great and wonderful when it
advances the path of humanity; but it can also be corrupted and perverted, to
become a source of suffering and unspeakable abuse: and so it must be elevated
and directed. The sense of moral responsibility in the sight of humanity and in
the sight of God, the reflection on the correct use of freedom in the building
and orientation of a new world and in learning how to live in it, are thus
absolutely necessary and fundamental for our common future. You have come
together here to address one of today’s most important and urgent issues for
the journey of humanity. I hope that the living sense of the beauty and the
mystery of human persons, of the greatness of their vocation to life, and thus
of the duty to protect them in their dignity and their growth, may inspire your
work and bear concrete and effective fruit.
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