Russia: abuse prevention in the Church, training seminars in Catholic dioceses across the country

Having drafted and published the document “Behavioural rules and principles for working with minors” in 2018, the Russian Conference of Catholic Bishops has now launched a series of seminars in the dioceses to explain the document and raise awareness on prevention among all those who carry out pastoral work with children and adolescents in local Churches, particularly priests and religious. Three seminars have already been held in the Archdiocese of Moscow (in Kaliningrad, St Petersburg, and recently in Moscow), as well as in the dioceses of Saratov and Irkutsk. The last two meetings will take place in November in the diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk. According to reports from the Russian Catholic news agency рускатолик.рф, the two-day training in Moscow was led by Father Stefan Lipke, rector of St. Thomas’ Institute; Father Andrei Kachmar, head of the Centre for the Protection of Children of the Slovakian Bishops’ Conference; Anna Sokolova, a psychologist from St. Petersburg, with experience with children victims of violence. Over the next few months, the Catholic Church in Russia intends to develop “transparent and accessible to all procedures” to report abuse cases in the Church.