Annual Report
on Church Policies and Procedures for Safeguarding
REPORTING PERIOD: 2023
Download the full version of the Annual Report
Download the Executive Summary
A new tool in the Commission’s commitment to Safeguarding
The Annual Report is an instrument of conversion itself, as part of a process to promote and map, with clear standards, the Church’s transition over time. It documents where risks remain, and where advances can be found in the Church’s efforts to protect children and vulnerable adults. It collects resources and good practices to be shared across the Universal Church, and makes specific recommendations to promote further progress in safeguarding.
The Report Examines Four Areas
the local church in focus
The Commission reviews safeguarding policies and procedures in 15 to 20 local Churches each year.
Safeguarding in the Continental Regions
The Commission analyses trends in safeguarding across the regions of Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe.
Safeguarding procedures and the Roman Curia
The Commission explores the Roman Curia’s role in promoting a culture of safeguarding, focusing on key dicasteries and their activities.
The Churches' Safeguarding Ministry in Society
The Commission covers the Church’s global safeguarding and advocacy in broader society.
the local church in focus
The Commission recognises the paramount importance of accompanying local Church leaders in their responsibility to implement prevention and response policies. During the reporting period, the Commission engages in standardised data exchanges with the local bishops and religious superiors. The purpose of Section 1 is to present an account of the safeguarding activities and challenges in the local Churches.
The review of bishops’ safeguarding policies and procedures takes place through the ad limina process, by special request from either an episcopal conference or one of the Commission’s Regional Groups. On this basis, the Commission reviews between 15 and 20 local Churches each year, with the intention to review the whole Church over a period of five to six Annual Reports. Each Annual Report also includes an analysis of select religious institutes.
Safeguarding in Continental regions
The Commission noted the importance of increasing solidarity among episcopal conferences in the various regions, to mobilise resources for universal standards in safeguarding, to create centres for victims’/survivors’ reporting and assistance, and to develop a true culture of safeguarding.
Section 2 is authored by the members and personnel of the Commission’s Regional Groups, and is based on their expertise and knowledge of regional safeguarding realities. It is particularly informed by the Commission’s engagement with victims/survivors at the local level.
Safeguarding procedures and the Roman Curia
As a network of networks, the Roman Curia can uniquely serve as a hub for sharing good practices in safeguarding, in its service to the local Churches.
The Commission aims to promote a common vision and to collect reliable information, in order to foster a higher degree of transparency in the Roman Curia’s procedures and jurisprudence with regard to individual cases of clerical abuse.
The Church’s Safeguarding Ministry in Society
In advancing her mission to promote human rights in broader society, the Church engages an array of populations to which she must ensure proper safeguarding standards.
The purpose of Section 4 is to demonstrate how the Church’s safeguarding work in the broader society can help to combat the diverse and evolving incidence of abuse, wherever it occurs.
The Commission’s Annual Report is designed to facilitate a process of ongoing conversion by the Church. This process of conversional justice includes at least two transitions or stages, which sometimes may overlap or coincide. The first transition is a move away from times of widespread sexual abuse that was frequently mishandled and covered up — to a new period when policies for safeguarding, reporting, investigations, and care for victims/survivors make abuses rare, and provide appropriate responses. The second transition concerns the long-term process of properly addressing the aftermath of periods of widespread abuse and mishandling of cases, by providing or facilitating care for victims/survivors and by addressing the impacts on the entire Church. Both transitions require practices of truth-telling, justice, reparations, and institutional reform.