Church in US needs culturally sensitive safeguarding training, expert says
June 21, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: A Jesuit viewed as a leading expert in efforts against clerical sexual abuse said that the Church in the United States needs to make significant efforts to offer more culturally sensitive abuse-prevention training.
Father Hans Zollner, SJ, of Pontifical Gregorian University—who resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2023—said in an interview that such efforts are needed so that various “ethnicities are more likely to come on board, and so that people don’t get the impression of a sort of ‘neo-colonialism’ by just applying the same type of structure, language, or educational programs to people who have a different outlook.”
He added, “When we talk with people from a different background do we really talk the same language in regard to sexuality, to harassment? How do we approach people, how you relate to people, talk about difficult issues?”
Since the US bishops implemented the Dallas charter—which includes abuse-prevention training and the permanent removal of clergy deemed credibly accused—the number of current abuse allegations has plummeted and stood at 16 in 2021-22 and 17 in 2022-23.
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