Greg DalyComplainant and respondent included in revised standards
New Church child protection guidelines will include specific provision for the care of priests and religious who have been accused of abuse.
Concern has repeatedly been expressed that while stringent procedures are necessary, the need for fair treatment of priests and religious who face allegations of abuse has been lacking.
Particular concern has been expressed when allegations are discovered to be unfounded, but a priest has been removed from ministry and, in many cases, named publicly as being accused of abuse.
Teresa Devlin, head of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) told The Irish Catholic that updated safeguarding standards will be clearer about the duty of care to the person making the allegation as well as the priest or religious who is being accused.
Ms Devlin also said that the new safeguarding standards will be clearer and more obviously relevant, particularly in the context of smaller congregations who no longer work directly with young people.
Differing from current standards in both content and arrangement, the revised standards will supplement the substance of the current standards with sections on ‘care of the complainant’ and ‘care of the respondent’, Ms Devlin said, explaining that the new standards should be easier to understand than the current ones.
Applicability
The most recent tranche of reports from the NBSCCCI found that orders such as the Dominican Sisters and the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary lacked guidelines on, for example, the intimate care of children with disabilities, even though such guidelines would have had limited or no applicability for these congregations which had otherwise been generally commended for their good practice.
Under current standards, Ms Devlin explained, these perceived shortcomings nonetheless must be highlighted, which the orders can find “unfair” even though “they signed up to the standard, so it does apply”.
The new standards will be colour-coded to distinguish between universally applicable standards and standards that apply only to orders whose current ministries entail dealing with children, Ms Devlin said.
Draft standards will be submitted to the bishops’ conference, Irish Missionary Union (IMU) and the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) next month for a period of consultation and legal proofing, before being presented in revised form in the summer for an induction process through a nationwide series of information sessions, with the standards to be formally adopted early next year.