Not minor offences” “

The European Churches have acted resolutely to counter the sexual abuses committed by priests, religious and laity employed in Church offices. After Ireland and England, new measures to curb the phenomenon have been introduced in Austria too. At the end of October the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop Sean Brady, announced the setting up of a new national committee for the protection of childhood. This was a concrete response to the recommendation in the Report of Mr Justice Frank Murphy on the sexual abuses committed on juveniles by priests of the diocese of Ferns. In England, the 2004 Report of COPCA, the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Adults at Risk promoted by the bishops of England and Wales, was presented in June this year. The English bishops had responded to the phenomenon by setting up the ad hoc “Nolan Commission” and issuing a document “A programme for action” in 2001. In the summer of 2004, the sex scandal erupted at the seminary of St. Pölten in Austria, causing an international furore and inducing the Vatican to appoint an Apostolic Visitator, Msgr. Klaus Küng, to throw full light on the situation and ascertain responsibilities. SPECIAL RULES. The archdiocese of Vienna has now introduced new measures against sexual abuses in the Church. In the light of a project promoted by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, special rules of conduct for Church personnel have now been formulated. According to these rules, “any form of physical, psychological, sexual and emotional abuse” shall lead to immediate dismissal and termination of the labour contract. Similar rules shall be applied to ecclesiastics, who “after an objective ascertainment” of the facts, in case of suspicion, shall be suspended from their own office. Ecclesiastics, however, cannot simply be sacked, since the provisions of canon law apply to them. A committee will also be set up with the role of furnishing advice to the archbishop in the case of decisions on any personal and professional consequences in relation to those presumed guilty of abuses. The four-man committee shall listen to depositions from the suspects, interrogate witnesses and present a report to the archbishop. This new procedure will have no influence on any penal proceeding against those guilty of abuse. PREVENTION AND ASSISTANCE. “Everything must be done to prevent cases of abuse occurring in the ecclesiastical sphere”, declared the Viennese Vicar General Franz Schuster, interviewed by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress. “With the new regulations”, he added, “it is made clear that any form of physical, psychological, sexual and emotional abuse is not a minor offence. The intensive work of the Church, especially with children and adolescents, demonstrates that justified trust is placed in those entrusted with spiritual care and in the personnel employed by the Church. To be able to have this trust also in future”, he declared, “the archdiocese of Vienna will commit itself to prevention, and if any abuse should unfortunately occur, it will offer assistance for the victims in a rapid and efficient way, with the necessary consequences for the perpetrators” of the abuse. VADE-MECUM ON ABUSE. To better inform ecclesiastical personnel and heighten awareness of the problem, the archdiocese has published a vade-mecum or handbook on abuse in recent days. The aim of the publication is to encourage ecclesiastical personnel to contribute actively to the prevention of abuse and to formulate detailed procedures to be applied in the case of well-founded suspicions. The document also contains new rules of conduct with which priests and all ecclesiastical personnel who work with children, adolescents and persons particularly in need of protection shall have to comply. Apart from guaranteeing greater protection of these categories at risk, and furnishing guidelines for those who work with them, with the aim of minimising the risk of unjust accusations being brought against them, the archdiocese, in adopting this package of measures, intends to send out a clear signal of what the right conduct should be.