Recently, the Archdiocese of Detroit mandated fingerprinting of all archdiocesan employees, including clergy, religious, and lay, as well as volunteers who work with children and vulnerable adults. This  has been added as an enhanced safeguard to the background checks and other practices for protecting children and vulnerable adults already established in the archdiocese.

In our earlier article, “Punishment, Prevention and Protection,” we began our study of a conference by Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ, given through the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality on “Safeguarding – An Integral Part of the Mission of the Church”. The revelations of clerical abuse in the Catholic Church has brought to light widespread abuse in other organizations, both faith-based and secular. This shocking discovery has galvanized efforts to understand and prevent sexual and other forms of abuse, and to seek how best to help the victims to come to healing and a renewed wholeness.

These efforts toward prevention and healing have brought together specialists in psychology and law, both civil and canon, around the world. Fr. Zollner has been involved in these efforts in some 75 countries for more than 20 years as a psychologist, psychotherapist, and priest.

In his conference, “Safeguarding – An Integral Part of the Mission of the Church,” Fr. Zollner begins with the definition of the word “safeguarding”. The general meaning of the term is a “process of protecting children and vulnerable adults from harm, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.” There are various forms of this definition, but in general, safeguarding focuses on prevention and protection.

As the Director of the Institute of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Fr. Zollner says that the definition of safeguarding used in the Institute goes further:

“What we did at our institute is to define safeguarding as the creation of safe space, the living out of safe relationships, and the following, and practice of safe practice and safe processes.”

This definition goes beyond prevention and even beyond protection. Fr. Zollner then defines the different terms of the original definition:

“So, safeguarding as the creation of safe space means the space where we live and where we work, the physical space. It means also today, of course, the virtual space, and especially for young people, but not only for young people. You know that the virtual space, the digital space today is probably the biggest threat to the safety of these groups of people.”

Safeguarding in this sense acknowledges the various “spaces,” physical and virtual, in which we live, but it does not rest in any passive acceptance of them. Instead, it calls for “the creation” of new forms of “space” and in doing so, it recognizes that “space” is not a continuum, either physical or virtual. It is not a framework in which activities take place. It is in fact those activities themselves. “Space” is the interaction of people with one another.

This brings us to the second part of Fr. Zollner’s definition:

“Safe relationships. How do we encounter people? How do we respect them? How do we acknowledge their dignity? How do we see in them the image of God that they are? And how do we instill safe relationships also in our communities, religious communities, faith communities, faith practice or sharing communities, parishes, retreat houses, whatever you have, social centers, et cetera. How to be as groups, as provinces, as communities, live out and communicate safe relationships with all those with whom we are in contact so that we don’t abuse them, we don’t harm their dignity and we really appreciate the other human being.”[i]

With this second part of his definition Fr. Zollner moves safeguarding into a far vaster and more demanding sphere of action. Safeguarding ceases to be a bulwark against abuse and is seen as a positive undertaking. By challenging our views of the human person, it is seen as a creative power that aims to bring into being a social and cultural atmosphere that fosters human harmony and fulfillment.

This is certainly an attractive and encouraging goal, but except for the call to see in people the “image of God,” it does not go beyond a high-minded ideal that any civilization should take for granted. In order to see safeguarding as an essential part of the mission of the Church, we will need to consider the whole matter more deeply. We intend to do this in our next article, “The Weakness of Safeguarding.”

Note

[i] “Safeguarding – An Integral Part of the Mission of the Church” – A conference given under the auspices of the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality. All block quotes from Fr. Zollner are from this talk.

Image: Adobe Stock. By Georgy.

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Sister Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D.

Sr. Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D. (Sr. Gabriela Hicks) was born in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the Gold Rush country of California, which she remembers as heaven on earth for a child! She lived a number of years in Europe, and then entered the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Flemington, New Jersey, where she has been a member for forty years. www.flemingtoncarmel.org.