Michael KellyMichael Kelly calls for a “more balanced approach” in regards to the safeguarding of children
Historian Diarmuid Ferriter wrote a book a few years ago about the history of the Pioneer temperance movement in Ireland. He titled the book A Nation of Extremes. It’s a title that has often resonated with me and I think it captures something profound about the Irish approach to life: we do extremes like no other. If in the 1950s, we were rushing to become the most Catholic country in the world, it seems like today there is the same unthinking rush to become the most progressive country in the world.
We see the same constantly reflected in the Church in Ireland: the extreme of rigid authoritarianism was replaced by a similarly rigid ‘all you need is love’ approach. The pendulum ever swings and balance remains ever illusive.
The idea of an extreme reaction occurs to me again this week amidst controversy about Church rules banning parents from taking photographs of children at first Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies.
In recent decades Ireland, as a society, has been forced to confront revelations of sexual abuse and the widespread cover-up of this abuse by those in authority. Understandably, a lot of the focus has been on Church failures: it’s right, of course, that people expect higher standards of a body which is supposed to be motivated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Wider society, too, has been forced to ask deeper questions about the prevalence of sexual abuse in Ireland. One hardly needs to rehearse the litany of historic and current State failings where both the HSE and Tulsa – the Child and Family Agency – have been found to be negligent in their care of vulnerable children.
There is, thankfully, a heightened awareness of the need to protect and safeguard children and vulnerable adults in our society. This has resulted in extremely robust child protection procedures in the Church and in many other voluntary bodies. This is, of course, welcome. But, all policies and procedures must be applied with common sense.
It seems to me that the rule banning photographs of children in Church is an over-the-top reaction. Given public reaction, it has caused a lot of anger amongst parents and families.
It seems based on the false notion that a huge proportion of people pose a risk to children when all of the evidence we have points to the fact that the number of adults who want to do harm to children is small though, obviously, not negligible.
I also have a concern that this approach increases anxiety amongst children who both consciously and unconsciously imbibe the notion that they can’t have their photographs taken because people taking the photographs may be doing so for untoward reasons.
Practical level
At a purely practical level, Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies are amongst the rare occasions when many Catholic families now celebrate their faith in a parish setting. Most of them will see this rule as overly burdensome.
From the point of view of child safeguarding, there is also the danger that such overly burdensome rules undermine trust and authority in the process. Much in the same way that people respond to bureaucratic overreach by denouncing “political correctness gone mad” we need to be wary of people feeling that child protection rules have “gone mad” and, therefore, undermining the spontaneous trust people have in the policies.
A more balanced approach is surely needed – one which ensures that the Church is a safe environment for children and young people, but also one which allows families to take photographs in an appropriate and reverent fashion.