Irish Church could serve as safeguarding model

A top priest psychologist who advises the American bishops on clerical sexual abuse has said that the Irish Church’s “one Church” approach to safeguarding should serve as a model for Churches still drawing up their policies in this area. Speaking in Athlone at the first national conference on safeguarding organised by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, Mgr Stephen Rossetti said if the United States Church was starting over again he would encourage it to adopt this approach.

It standardises safeguarding procedures across 26 dioceses and over 160 religious congregations and missionary societies through a shared auditing process via the board. He told the conference, which included members of the hierarchy, that while religious orders and dioceses in the US collaborate, the fact that they have their own processes meant “people jealously guard their turf a little bit more”.
The Church in England and Wales also has a robust one church policy with dioceses and religious orders coming under the same safeguarding commissions.