Church in
Crisis Church office to monitor child protection
By NCR STAFF
The Catholic church in England and Wales has appointed Eileen
Shearer as head of the new Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and
Vulnerable Adults, according to British media reports. The single mother with a
long career in childrens services will advise the church in England and
Wales on the prevention of child abuse and the protection of adults.
Her office will be located in Birmingham, England, under the
direction of its archbishop, Vincent Nichols, chairman of the management board
for the new office. The office will monitor policy implementation on a national
basis and produce an annual report to the Bishops Conference of England
and Wales, which will be published.
Her appointment followed an independent report by Lord Nolan, a
leading lay Catholic. This report was ordered by Cardinal Cormac
Murphy-OConnor, leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales.
Between 1995 and 1999, 21 Catholic priests in England and Wales were convicted
of child sex abuse. Lord Nolans report put forward 83 recommendations.
Crucial to their implementation, said the report, will be the setting up of the
Catholic Office for Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.
The report recommended that every bishop set up a team to fight
child abuse in his diocese and also that every potential priest and church
volunteer be examined for a criminal record. Selection boards for priests
should, it said, err on the side of caution, when considering
suspicious candidates.
Shearer has had a successful 25-year career in childrens
services, including 16 years working for the British National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children and has also held a post of regional director
for that organization. She has also helped write a number of publications
concerning child protection. She is the mother of a teenage girl.
Shearer will have three full-time assistants and a fully
computerized system that will have access to criminal records. The main
role of my office is prevention, she said in an interview with the BBC.
I will not be some kind of modern day devils advocate. My staff
will work to ensure that the wrong people do not get the opportunity to work
with children.
Roman Catholics must now feel that they can turn to a body
who will not only listen to their concerns but will act on them. If a person
had a concern over a bishop, they can now come to us rather than the church
hierarchy, Shearer said.
Some have denounced Shearers appointment as nothing more
than a public relations exercise. They point to a recent Vatican ruling that
appeared to say that discipline would remain a church matter. Shearer insists
this will not be the case. Whatever the outcome of internal disciplinary
proceedings, it cannot stop cases of alleged abuse being investigated by
statutory agencies and criminal charges being brought when necessary. Once
again I must emphasize that my appointment demonstrates that the Roman Catholic
church is serious about this matter.
National Catholic Reporter, April 19,
2002
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