Prevention first

adminonNovember 17, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

In the past two years, the archdiocese of Cologne has commissioned about 24.000 full-time and volunteer staff trained in prevention of sexual violence.

In approx. 1.000 events, school teachers, educators, priests, youth group leaders and catechists, as well as choir directors and administrators, were made aware of the ie and given recommendations for action in cases of suspicion.

After attending a training session, all employees would have to sign a self-commitment statement, explained Gene-ral Vicar Dr. Stefan Hebe when presenting the figures. Moreover, according to the prevention regulations in force since 2011, 20.000 extended leadership certificates of church employees have been requested. It is important "that children and young people find with us a protected area, in which they can develop healthily", so Hebe. This is the only way to regain lost trust.

Coordination and implementation of prevention is the task of prevention officer Oliver Vogt in the Archdiocese of Cologne. He develops and organizes the individual measures with his staff unit based at the vicar general's office. A total of more than 350 instructors have been trained for the prevention training courses. He also organizes specialist conferences and ensures the inter-diocesan exchange of experience.

For the upcoming vacations, the prevention center has published the information flyer "Children's rights on the road". It also operates the "Unterwegs Telefon" ("On the Road Phone"), which provides advice to leaders of vacation camps in situations where they are unsure of themselves. The Archdiocese of Cologne has invested a total of 1.5 million euros in prevention to date.

In the dispute between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany, the fronts remain hardened. The head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Church Foreign Office, Archbishop Hilarion, reiterated in an interview with the Hamburg news magazine Der Spiegel published in advance on Saturday that his church rejects Margot Kabmann, who was elected EKD Council chairwoman in late October, as a contact person. "The patriarch cannot meet with any female bishops," Hilarion said.

"Women cannot succeed the apostles," archbishop explained his church's position. Moreover, according to the Orthodox view, the Protestant churches are not really churches, but merely communities of Christians. "They justify homosexuality from the theological point of view, even bless marriages between homosexuals. 'Some think abortion is not a sin,' criticized Hilarion, according to Patriarch Cyril I. Second most powerful man in Russian Orthodox church hierarchy.Hilarion, however, ared that he would seek new forms of cooperation with the EKD. "I am willing to meet with leaders of the evangelical church to discuss the future form of cooperation," the archbishop said. As his counterpart on the side of the EKD Hilarion considers, according to his own words, foreign bishop Martin Schindehutte.However, the German side insists that the Russian Orthodox recognize that in the churches of the Reformation women and lay people hold church-leading positions: "In this respect, there can be no official contacts to the EKD bypassing the council chairwoman," Kabmann had recently explained in an epd interview.Archbishop Hilarion finds words of appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI in "Spiegel" interview. and whose advocacy of "traditional Christian values". The Russian Orthodox Church wants a breakthrough in relations with the Catholic Church: "We are allies and face the same challenge, an aggressive secularism," said Hilarion. A meeting of Russian Church leader Cyril I. with the pope, which has been speculated about for years, is quite possible and desirable. The prerequisite is that Catholics and Orthodox no longer steal believers from each other.

The abuse scandal is now preoccupying Italy, the country's bishops and their primate – the pope. Cautiously but unequivocally, Benedict XVI made use of the. his address to the Bishops' Conference, which has just met, to call for an open approach to the ie.

"The will for a new age of evangelization does not hide the wounds from which the Church is marked because of the weakness and sin of some members," he said. The church must learn again to repent and accept purification, according to the pope's words. Benedict XVI. also affirmed that in dealing with sexual abuse, not only forgiveness but also justice is necessary. The secretary general of the bishops' conference, Bishop Mariano Crociata, had previously quantified the cases of abuse in the Italian church for the first time and had spoken of about 100 canonical proceedings in the past ten years. Crociata left open how many of those cases ended in conviction. At the same time, he pointed out that the bishops' conference would not set up a special commission to deal with cases of abuse by clerics. The guidelines of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as the pope's letter to the Irish Church, already contain all the instructions necessary for such an undertaking. With regard to cooperation with government agencies, Crociata stressed that Italian legislation does not include an obligation to report cases of abuse. However, this in no way precludes cooperation, the secretary general said. That the ie of abuse has now also reached the Italian church was already made clear by conference chairman Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco in his opening address to the plenary session. In it, he affirmed that the Italian church would "not compromise"; the victims must be the center of attention. The Genoese pastor pointed out that the Italian bishops had already been making efforts for several years to more carefully select and train candidates for the priesthood. Bagnasco also stressed that everything possible was being done to promote confidence in the Church.

Media report on abuse These statements did not find a great echo in the Italian press. The two largest national dailies, "La Repubblica" and "Corriere della Sera," reported on the bishops' meeting only on the back pages. Both papers also mentioned that the German Bishops' Conference was setting up a special commission for cases of abuse, but without linking this to any direct criticism of the Italian Church. Overall, the attention of the Italian media in recent weeks has focused more on individual cases of abuse. The arrest of a Milanese priest for relevant offenses was reported by the "Corriere" with a front-page teaser – while the bishops' conference's discussion of the ie followed far behind. Bishop Gino Reali's appearance in the trial of a Roman priest who is on trial for sexual abuse in the Italian capital also caused a stir last week. Asked why he had not taken action against his clergyman in light of the abuse allegations, the head of the Porto-Santa Rufina diocese near Rome stated, among other things, that he had admonished the priest to limit his contacts and to stop receiving boys at his home.

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