5559(I)_How to deal with the culture of silence? - Prevention and Openness
January 26, 2021
World, 26 January 2021 -- Almost two years after the large Vatican summit on 'The Protection of Minors in the Church' (February 2019) we see many signs of serious commitment in many parts of the Universal Church: there are valuable new Guidelines, Protocols and Formation guides at many levels of Catholic institutions - dioceses, religious congregations, education or social welfare institutions. Some 18 month ago the first Workshop on Religious discipline (October 2019) was organized in the EAO Region, dealing with this important theme for Vice-Provincials.
However there is one cultural factor that makes The Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults rather difficult in some regions around the world and we may call it 'The Culture of Silence' that has its roots in traditional cultures and relationships, deeply rooted in many societies and affecting Catholic communities as well.
It is very inspiring to see many SDB provinces moving beyond this 'Culture of Silence' with many creative and very practical initiatives. One of them is for example the recently open web page of the Czech Province (Prague): https://www.sdb.cz/prevence-zneuzivani. It is the result of consistent team work and long term effort guided by the Provincial Vicar, Fr. Vojtech Sivek and you can gain a lot of wisdom from his interview (www.sdb.cz) made public on 24 January 2021. His extensive interview of 15 questions is also available on Boscolink. We share just one of the final questions: How can the Church lead by example and show the way to prevent, address and remedy abuse?
Fr Sivek (SDB provincial vicar and professional psychologist) responds:
"As I shared already, in the Church we tackle the same issues as within civil society... As elsewhere, transparency, teamwork and the openness to be seen at work and to be accompanied in growth, is crucial. If you are open as a supervisor, a spiritual guide or a superior - it does help the Church to face this challenge. It's important to open up the topic of abuse, not to keep it as a taboo, not to be afraid to look it in the eye. It's very difficult, because there is a lot of pain and shame in it.
On the other hand, I believe, that the Church has much to bring to this subject, namely the forgiveness, reconciliation and healing, that Christ has brought. This is a huge gift that the Church can offer and for which it was actually founded by Jesus..."
Although the language barrier is a challenge, you may get a lot of inspiration for any other province facing the 'culture of silence':
* Honest and open answers to the 15 questions of the journalist
* Abuse Prevention website with many concrete links to social society institutions: where to go, whom to consult or meet
* Detailed steps of the process followed by the Catholic Canon Law in these situations
* Salesian understanding of Child Protection in highly complex and equipped European societies
The hope is that this initiative of one European province will also help many others around the Globe to move forward with more transparency, preventive mindset, teamwork and close collaboration with many lay people.
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