KENYA: Catholic Church Named Biggest Safeguarding Institute of Minors and Vulnerable in the World.
Sr. Ondeng and Fr. Hans
Sr. Henriette Anne (FSSA)
Fr. Hans Zolnner SJ, the President of Centre for Child Protection (CCP) at the Gregorian University Foundation shared in a recent conference that brought together various participants across the globe that “the Catholic Church is the biggest safeguarding institution in the world.”
“Catholic is the biggest safeguarding institution in the world, despite of the contrary we read or see in news. I say it here, there is no other institution engaged in safeguarding of minors and vulnerable than Catholic Church,” Fr. Hanns narrated.
During his presentation, he acknowledges the marvelous work done by Sisters in this sector, saying “What you do for the promotion of girls in academic and human growth area, I believe, we are doing well and most especially on empowerment of the girl child, and this our call”.
Fr. Hanns, a member of Society of Jesus, opined that everyone can do something so that the Church be a safer place and a world that is safe.
“Nobody needs to do everything; nobody need to solve problems completely by the way the world has been saved. We don’t need to save the world, but we can lend our time, energy, our creativity, our purpose and that is enough. We can do what we can, but if we don’t do what we can, we miss it out. So, I appeal to you each ad everyone here to do something and if we bring that together, we can change the world,” explained Fr. Hanns.
He also stressed that we cannot talk about safeguarding if we cannot talk about victims of abuse, expressing that “most of the victim of sexual abuse both inside and outside the Church say that it is not the sexual abuse in itself but the fact that they felt over-powered by a powerful person. “Therefore, we need to see that safeguarding is not only avoiding sexual interaction of an adult person and a minor but that it is about changing the culture in the Church itself,” he said.
Sr Jacinta Odeng’, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame on her part reflected on abuses in Religious communities.
“Abuse of Religious women is not just about abuse by clergy but a calling upon all to deeply reflect on how we abuse one another in communities,” Sr ODeng’ said as she stressed that on looking into some of the practices among the Religious if at all they make sense.
She further discussed with the participants to consider including safeguarding programs in their formation, avoiding clericalism.
On the issue of priest abusing sister, she said that Religious women need also to ask themselves what is their contribution.
Sr. Ondeng’ a lecture at Kenya-based Tangaza University College suggested that a safeguarding desk needs to be set whereby Sisters who cannot talk about their problem in their own communities can have somewhere to report cases of abuses.
