JCEP held an online conference on Safeguarding from June 1-3 entitled Building a Culture of Safeguarding: Understanding the Root Causes of Harm or Abuse, the event was organised and facilitated by Saoirse Fox (HIB and acting JCEP Safeguarding Coordinator),  John Guiney SJ (HIB), Thomas Hollweck SJ (ECE), Franck Janin SJ (JCEP), Susana Pradera (ESP).  The conference was aimed at Provincials, Safeguarding Delegates and Formation Delegates, or any others within a Province (and, even in the wider Church!) who have leadership responsibility in forming others, and in creating and “Promoting a Consistent Culture of Protection” [PCCP] and safety. Within the Society of Jesus, the primary safeguarding focus is no longer on child abuse or the abuse of the vulnerable.  The horizon has shifted to be inclusive of all persons everywhere, and all persons to whom Jesuits and our Lay Colleagues minister.  The radical scope of the new horizon has been captured in the second Universal Apostolic Preference where the Society states that ‘(w)e commit ourselves to help eliminate abuses inside and outside the Church, seeking to ensure that victims are heard and properly helped, that justice is done, and that harm is healed’ – an amazing dream wherein safeguarding (as Cura Personalis) and the Gospel meet.

Two themes

There were two overarching themes of the conference: 1) how an understanding of causes and contributors of abusive practices must inform our prevention work and our responses to cases of abuse; and 2) in light of our understanding of causes, what are we learning is important in the formation experience?

The conference included input, personal sharings, and plenary sessions.  Contributors included Saoirse Fox, Irish Province Delegate for Professional Standards and Safeguarding, who spoke about research conducted on systemic factors underpinning abuse in the Catholic Church; Prof. Sheila Baroness Hollins - founding member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors; former Jesuit Provincials Johan Verschueren SJ (ELC) and Cristian del Campo SJ (Chile) who reflected on abuse within the Jesuit context and the type of culture and individual factors that contributed to the abuse occurring; (Susana Pradera and Saoirse Fox helped us ‘join the dots’ about what we were hearing); Mark Ravizza SJ, General Counsellor for Formation, spoke of how we go about creating Jesuits who treat other people with respect and care; and, Thomas Hollweck SJ, Novice Master of the Central European Province, broadened the traditional formation focus from the human and spiritual development of the individual to the institutional culture that facilitates healthy development.

Network for a beginning moment

John Guiney SJ and Mrs Tina Campbell, Coordinators of the PCCP project, spoke about their work and vision for the project and challenged Provincials and Formation Delegates to act on the learnings of the conference.  Saoirse Fox, as acting JCEP Safeguarding Coordinator, met with the Safeguarding Delegates and proposed a Safeguarding Delegates’ Network for JCEP.

In concluding the conference Franck Janin JCEP President said that, as a body of Jesuits and Lay Colleagues, we are learning a new language and at ‘a beginning moment.’  We are beginning to create a culture, a culture which is to emerge in healthy relationships, a culture which will not emerge overnight!  This will be a Long-Term Process.  But through slow, patient incarnation it will root everything we are and do in a more authentic spiritual life.