Italian journal La Civilta Cattolica February summit to help nations slow to move on abuse policies
Only about half of the national bishops’ conferences in the world have adopted complete, Vatican-approved guidelines for handling accusations of clerical sexual abuse and promoting child protection, said the Jesuit named to moderate the Vatican’s February summit on abuse.
Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi said about one-quarter of the bishops’ conferences have received feedback on their proposed guidelines from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and are working on the final versions. That leaves 25% of conferences “behind for various reasons, among which are different cultural contexts and a scarcity of available competence”.
The doctrinal congregation in 2011 had asked every bishops’ conference in the world to develop guidelines for handling accusations of abuse and to submit them for approval by mid-2012. Writing for the January 19 edition of La Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit journal reviewed by the Vatican before publication, Fr Lombardi said the February meeting would be an important occasion for bishops to share best practices and to assist conferences that, because of a lack of funds or expertise, have not launched protection and prevention programs.
Vatican releases guidelines to tackle human trafficking
The Vatican has created a set of pastoral guidelines to inspire and improve the Church’s work in addressing the crime of human trafficking and the care of its victims worldwide. The Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development released its ‘Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking’ at a Vatican news conference on January 17.
“Pope Francis’ insistent teaching on human trafficking provides the foundation for the present pastoral orientations which draw also from the longstanding practical experience of many international Catholic NGOs working in the field and from the observations of representatives of bishops’ conferences,” the text said.
“While approved by the Holy Father, the orientations do not pretend to exhaust the Church’s teaching on human trafficking; rather, they provide a series of key considerations that may be useful to Catholics and others in their pastoral ministry, in planning and practical engagement, in advocacy and dialogue,” it said.
Catholics must ‘forge new bonds’ with Jewish community, Pope says
A few decades of respectful Catholic-Jewish dialogue pale in comparison to “19 centuries of Christian anti-Judaism”, Pope Francis said, so Catholics must continue to ask forgiveness and forge new bonds of respect and friendship with the Jewish community.
“We must work with greater intensity to ask pardon and repair the damage,” the Pope said in an introduction to a new Italian book of Christian and Jewish commentaries on passages from the first five books of the Bible, which are known collectively as the Torah or Pentateuch.
Pope Francis said the volume of commentaries, ‘The Bible of Friendship’, is an important tool for helping Catholics recognise the Jewish roots of their Faith and for promoting concrete Catholic-Jewish cooperation in helping others.
“It is of vital importance for Christians to discover and foster knowledge of the Jewish tradition in order to understand themselves more authentically,” the Pope said, and studying the Bible is an essential part of that effort.
Reading the Hebrew Scriptures together, he said, helps people discover the richness of the word of God. “The common objective will be to witness together to the love of the Father throughout the world.”