On May 2nd, 2025, Robert Ferguson, Governor of the State of Washington, signed into law Bill 5375 making it mandatory for Catholic priests and other religious leaders to report “if they have reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse.” This obligation included information received when they were “performing official duties recognized by their religious tradition”, including information obtained under the seal of confession.
There were immediate objections, both religious, legal, and practical, to the bill, and ultimately a settlement was agreed on that kept the seal of confession intact. Priests and other religious leaders continue to be required to report suspected abuse, but not when the information is acquired under the seal of confession.
The desire to protect children and all vulnerable people is a shared goal among lawgivers, caregivers, and religious leaders. The Catholic Church in the USA established the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002 and revised it several times since then. The danger, that abusers will continue their activities if not stopped, is well recognized. Punishment for abusive actions is merited and should be applied.
But it is not enough. Punishment has one drawback: it is applied when the harm has already been done. Someone has been victimized. Someone has suffered what they should never have suffered. Punishment is a response to the abuse and a way to prevent further abuse. It is a beginning and more is needed.
A necessary further step is protection: there are various organizations that present useful guidelines on how to protect children and other vulnerable people. The word that is used to describe these and similar steps is “safeguarding.” The 5 R’s of safeguarding are: Recognize – Respond – Report – Record – and Refer. There are many helpful tips and much practical advice on how to keep children and young people safe.
The Catholic Church’s authority on safeguarding is Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ. Born in Regensburg, Germany, in 1966, he studied philosophy and theology and then entered the Jesuits in 1990. He got his licentiate in psychology from the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, his doctorate in theology at the University of Innsbruck, and he was qualified as a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist in 2004 at the PTK Bayern. His first-hand experiences with abuse victims deeply influenced his interest in and his concern for those suffering from and threatened with abuse. [1] He was made a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors when it was founded in 2014. He left it in 2023. In 2012, he was a founding member of the Center for Child Protection, which is now the Institute of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) of the Pontifical Gregorian University, of which he is at present the Director.
Recently, on January 10, 2026, Fr. Zollner gave an online conference at the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality. The subject of his talk was “Safeguarding – integral part of the Mission of the Church.” Fr. Zollner has a close link with the Carmelites, for he said that he had had Carmelite confessors in school, and as a Jesuit, the subject for his licentiate thesis was “The Image of God in the Interior Castle of Teresa of Jesus.”[2]
We tend to dismiss any serious link between psychology and spirituality, seeing the first as “a science,” and the second as an expression of devotion. Fr. Zollner, with degrees in both theology and psychology, and a definite interest in spirituality, does not make this mistake. On the contrary. The Institute of Anthropology, of which he is a founder and the present director, focuses on raising awareness about human dignity and applying measures to promote and protect that dignity according to Christian anthropology. It strives to integrate theology, psychology, law, sociology, and medicine, and Fr. Zollner includes spirituality as an integral part of theology. So much so, that he begins his talk by saying, “I’m deeply grateful that I discovered Carmelite spirituality and the spirituality of Teresa, of Avila, also through this work of study and prayer. So what I want to say, from the beginning, is that the topic that we have agreed upon, safeguarding as an integral part of the mission of the church, is deeply connected to spirituality.” He then emphasizes this statement by insisting, “And if it is not connected, it’ll not work.”
So, in Fr. Zollner’s experience, safeguarding is an integral part of the mission of the Church, and it is deeply connected to spirituality. Spirituality is a necessary component to safeguarding. This is a startling concept. Normally our consideration of safeguarding begins when we encounter incidents of abuse. These incidents are certainly seen as serious attacks on the human dignity of the victims. In this we easily agree with Fr. Zollner. But our first impulse is to punish the perpetrator and, in that way, to stop further attacks. Abuse is seen primarily as a crime. For those with a religious bent, it can also be seen as a moral offense and even a sin. But, to see abuse in a spiritual light is a new and far from obvious way of looking at it.
It is new for Fr. Zollner also. In his talk, he admits that “it is important for me over the last, let me say, one or two years to highlight the link to spirituality.” He will develop this link between safeguarding and spirituality in the conference. He will give various insights into the link between the two. On our part, in this series “Safe From Abuse?,” we will develop these insights and the conclusions that can be drawn from them. Abuse is a far-reaching threat, a many-headed horror, and we all need to admit its reality. In our considerations, we may find that reality touches us more intimately than we suspect.
Notes
[1] https://laycentre.org/community-evening-diary-a-conversation-with-fr-hans-zollner-sj/
[2] “Safeguarding – integral part of the Mission of the Church.” All quotes from Fr. Zollner in this article are from this talk.
Image: Adobe Stock, by Kateryna.
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.
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