Abp Scicluna: Protection of
minors is a global, synodal issue
 |
| Archbishop Charles Scicluna. |
Newly appointed to the organising Committee for a February
meeting of Church leaders from around the world, Maltese Archbishop Charles
Scicluna says he hopes the Church will begin to take a global approach to
protecting minors and confronting clerical sexual abuse.
By Christopher Wells
In an exclusive
interview with Jesuit periodical America,
Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta described the upcoming
meeting as “the beginning of a new approach that I hope will be global, because
it concerns the whole Church.” But, he continued, “it will also have a very
important local context, because safeguarding is not something up-there, it has
to be lived in every parish, in every school, in every diocese.”
A new phase
With the announcement on Friday of an organising
Committee, preparations for February’s summit on the protection of minors
in the Church has entered a new phase. In addition to Abp Scicluna, the
organising Committee is composed of Cardinals Blase Cupich and Oswald
Gracias, and child protection expert Father Hans Zollner, SJ.
In the interview with America, Abp Scicluna
emphasised the importance of the upcoming meeting, which he called “quite
significant,” precisely because it involves bishops from around the world,
coming together in dialogue with Pope Francis, in order “to get
them on the same page with the Holy Father.”
A crisis in how we approach ministry
Archbishop Scicluna described the main goals of the meeting
as making bishops “realise and discuss together the fact that the sexual abuse
of minors is not only an egregious phenomenon in itself and a crime, but it is
also a very grave symptom of something deeper, which is actually a crisis in
the way we approach ministry.” In this context, Abp Scicluna placed
accountability in the context of good “stewardship,” and described
the cover-up of abuse which has plagued the Church as “the
antithesis of stewardship.”
“We have to move away from panic-driven policies that put
the good name of the institution above all other considerations,” he said,
noting that “in the end, those policies do reputational damage to the
institution; they are actually also counterproductive.”
At the top of the Church’s agenda
Archbishop Scicluna said that the February summit meeting
was called by Pope Francis precisely because “he realises that this issue” –
the issue of abuse of minors in the Church – “has to be at the top on
the Church’s agenda.” Pope Francis, he said, realises that this is a
“global issue which the Church would want to approach with a united front, with
respect for the different cultures, but with a united resolve, and with people
being on the same page.”
The February meeting, Abp Scicluna said, will send an
“important message” that “the prevention of abuse and protection and
safeguarding of our children and young people is not a question only of the
bishops; it is a synodal issue. It is something that involves the
whole Church and everyone in the Church around the world; it concerns one and
all.”
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