“Each child should be cherished and affirmed as a gift from God with an inherent right to dignity of life and bodily integrity which shall be respected, nurtured and protected by all.”
The National Board for Safeguarding Children - Standards & Guidance Document 2008
The Limerick Diocese values and encourages the participation of children in the life of the Church and is committed to best practice, which protects children from harm and abuse. Staff, volunteers, clergy and religious in this Diocese accept and recognise our responsibilities to develop awareness of the issues which cause children harm. These responsibilities include:
Adopting best practice child protection guidelines in accordance with the standards named in the National Board for Safeguarding Children Standards & Guidance Document.
Ensuring that children will be listened to and heard.
Sharing information about child protection and good practice with children, parents, staff, volunteers, clergy and religious.
Sharing information about concerns with the relevant agencies and involving parents and children appropriately.
Carefully following the procedures for recruiting, training and managing staff and volunteers, clergy and religious.
Providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support and training.
Being committed to reviewing our policy and good practice procedures on an annual basis.
We are also committed to reviewing our policy and good practice procedures on an annual basis.
In the following video
Ms. Aoife Walsh the Child Protection Training Co-ordinator
for the Diocese of Limerick speaks about Child Protection in the Diocese addressing the following questions:
Who is involved with Child Protection in the Diocese of Limerick?
What procedures are followed in relation to Child Protection in the Diocese?
What do I do if I have a Child Protection concern?
Power-point Presentation
Power-point Presentation delivered by Brian Dunne on 26th February & 2nd April at Diocesan Child Protection Resource Days for Clergy ( Download Powerpoint )
The level of hurt that exists in our society due to child abuse cannot be measured. Child abuse has been a sad and tragic reality of our history and we must do all in our power to ensure that it does not occur now or in the future. We as a society and as Church must be there to support each other, especially the hurt and vulnerable, in whatever way we can.
Bishop Murray said, “The Good Samaritan is our model. We must not, like the priest and Levite in the parable, pass by on the other side, failing to see somebody’s suffering because we are too wrapped up in our own business to notice. To be a Good Samaritan means being available to listen, to learn, to understand and to offer wholehearted help”.
We must all work together to ensure that all youth activities that take place in any church context in the Limerick Diocese will be done in such a way as to provide children with the safest possible environment.
The safety of children is of paramount importance in all parish activities. To this purpose, the Diocese of Limerick has the following measures in place to ensure the protection of children.
The Limerick Diocesan Child Protection Policy comes from the ‘Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference policy document Our Children: Our Church under the direction of the National Board. This document provided a guide for the Diocese in organising Diocesan meetings in conjunction with the Child Protection Office in Maynooth.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church http://www.safeguarding.ie/default.htm has produced a Standards and Guidance Document, which seeks to provide a standard which can be applied throughout the whole Church in Ireland thus avoiding a multiplicity of approaches. This new document is described as follows in the introductory statement by the Chairman of the National Board:
“The Standards and Guidance document seeks to address this situation by reiterating and developing further the core principles outlined in OCOC. These principles are drawn from Gospel values, mirrored in civil legislation and policy, and apply across both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.
From these core principles are drawn seven ‘Standards’ that represent, in our view, best practice in the area of safeguarding and protecting children. For each standard we have listed practical criteria by which performance in achieving each safeguarding standard can be measured. The intention of this document is to provide a practical mechanism by which everyone in the Church in Ireland can reach a uniform standard of best practice in safeguarding based on the core principles established in OCOC.”
This document, which will be expanded and revised from time to time, now guides our Child Safeguarding policy. It is being studied by the two Diocesan committees mentioned below and by those who are involved in child safeguarding in the parishes
The Child Protection Training Committee of the Limerick Diocese meets on a monthly basis. Meetings are co-chaired by Ms. Catherine Kelly, Director of Limerick Youth Service and Fr. John O’ Shea, Parish Priest of Abbeyfeale. The purpose of this committee is to provide training in the area of child protection for every parish in the Limerick Diocese.
At present the Diocese has two qualified child protection trainers – Ms. Aoife Walsh and Fr. Chris O’Donnell. Ms. Aoife Walsh is the Child Protection Training Co-ordinator for the Diocese. Any queries concerning training, parish policies, child protection facilitators or cluster representatives should be directed to her. She can be contacted at the Limerick Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Denmark St. Limerick. 061-400133.awalsh@ldpc.ie
In 2004 eighteen people received training in the keeping safe training programme. These volunteers then delivered child protection information sessions throughout the diocese. In just under two years every parish in the Diocese had held an information session. It is estimated that over the last three years approximately 1350 people have attended an information session in the Diocese. The people who attended these sessions were from a broad cross section of the community and typically included Clergy, teachers, community guards, parish youth group volunteers, sacristans, choir leaders, parents and other people involved in parish groups.
Using guidelines received at the information sessions each parish compiled their own Parish Child Protection Policy. Each policy was then submitted to the Child Protection Training Committee for approval. Once approval was given Parish Pastoral Councils were asked to ratify the policy and then to ensure that the policy was displayed in all parish properties, along with a poster containing phone numbers for the Diocesan Designated Person, the Gardaí and the HSE.
A record of each parish policy will be held by the Child Protection Training Committee and Bishop Murray will check that this information is clearly displayed when he visits the parishes for Confirmation.
In 2006 training began for Child Protection Cluster Representatives. Twenty four people received training and their role within the cluster is to raise awareness of Child Protection issues. They do this by:
Co-ordinating with the Child Protection Training Co-ordinator
Ensuring that policies are posted on all Church notice boards in Cluster
Ensuring that Parish policies and procedures are outlined in Parish Newsletters and on Parish websites.
By co-ordinating with Parish groups to ensure policies and procedures are in place
By informing groups when training is taking place in the diocese.
Cluster Representatives will also ensure that the public has ready access to contact details for the Director of Child Protection by ensuring that contact details are posted on the church notice boards, parish community halls and in parish newsletters. Cluster Representatives will also facilitate those wishing to bring an allegation or suspicion of child abuse to the attention of the Director of Child Protection, should they wish to have such support by supplying the contact details for the Diocesan Designated Person. The names of Cluster Representatives are displayed on the Child Protection information Posters in all Parish Churches and properties.
Advisory Panel
The Limerick Diocese also has in place an Advisory Panel. This panel has two functions – Advisory and Supervisory
Advisory
It advises Bishops Murray on how best to proceed in individual concrete cases.
Supervisory
It hears from the ‘designated person’ whose function it is to hear and inquire into complaints on behalf of the Bishop.
It also hears from the ‘contact persons’ (appointed by the Bishop) whose function it is to provide pastoral support and ongoing contact and information for complainants and accused.
It keeps individual cases under ongoing review.
Designated Person
If you have a concern regarding child protection please contact the person designated to receive such concerns at 087 3233564.
You may also contact Bishop Murray through the Diocesan Offices at 061 315856.
The Bishop, Priests and Staff of the Limerick Diocese are committed to the protection of children. We thank the people of the Diocese for their support through some very difficult years. Together, we are committed to ensure that the Church’s ministry to children can take place in a confident and safe environment.
Chronological order of publications and initiatives taken by the Irish Bishops’ Conference in relation to child protection:
1994 - Irish Catholic Bishops’ Advisory Committee on Child Sexual Abuse by Priests and Religious convened under the Chairmanship of Most Rev. Laurence Forristal, Bishop of Ossory. Its purpose was to identify guidelines for Church policy in instances or suspicions of child sexual abuse by a priest or religious. The membership of the Committee included representatives from the professions of Psychiatry, Paediatrics, Law, Canon Law, Clergy, Religious and Communications.
This report recognises the paramount need to safeguard the welfare of children. It emphasizes the need for a strong commitment to prevention through a range of measures to reduce the risk of such abuse in the future.
1997 - National Resource Group established, under Chairmanship of Bishop Forristal. Its key terms of reference were: * To serve as a resource for the Catholic Church in Ireland in responding to the issue of Child Sexual Abuse by priests and religious;
* To facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of ‘The Green Book’. Throughout 1997 the National Resource Group provided training programmes for all personnel appointed by dioceses - delegates, deputy delegates, support persons and priest advisors.
1998 - The National Resource Group organised a Consultation Seminar for English-speaking Episcopal Committees dealing with Child Sexual Abuse - representatives of the Episcopal Conferences of eleven countries participated (Dundrum, Co Tipperary 18-21 May).
1999 – Bishops’ Committee on Child Abuse established under the chairmanship of Bishop Eamonn Walsh to liaise with the Government proposed Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Laffoy Commission). Membership of the Committee included representatives from the professions of Psychology, Canon Law, Counselling, Teaching, Clergy and Religious.
2001 - January - The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland were commissioned by the Bishops' Committee on Child Abuse to conduct a research project to examine the impact of clerical child sexual abuse on: (i) victims and their extended families; (ii) perpetrators and their extended families; (iv) colleagues; (v) parishes and the wider community. The results of this extensive study: Time to Listen, were published in December 2003.
2001 - July - The Child Protection Office of the Irish Bishops’ Conference was established and Mr Paul Bailey was appointed as Executive Director. See www.cpo.ie.
2001 - September - The Bishops’ Committee on Child Protection was established under the chairmanship of Bishop Eamonn Walsh and it replaced the Bishops ’ Committee on Child Abuse.
2002 - April - The Bishops’ Conference announce a Nationwide Independent Audit into handling of all complaints of child sexual abuse by diocesan priests or religious in diocesan appointments as far back as 1940.
2002 - July - Judge Gillian Hussey was appointed as chairperson of the Catholic Church Commission on Child Sexual Abuse (Hussey Commission)
2002 - September - Judge Hussey announces the members of her Commission which drawn from the professions of Social Work, Psychology, Law, Law Enforcement, Criminology, and a Social Historian.
2002 - December - Judge Hussey decides to cease the work of her Commission following the announcement by the Minister for Justice for the: “preparation of a scheme for a statutory basis for a new mechanism for investigating into matters of significant and urgent public importance”. It was the Minister’s intention that such a scheme would include the handling of clerical sexual abuse. Thus, Judge Hussey believed her Commission would be duplicating the work of the State.
2003 - June - The Working Group on Child Protection, chaired by management consultant Ms Maureen Lynott, was established by the Bishops’ Conference, Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU) to develop a comprehensive and integrated child protection policy for the Irish Catholic Church. The Working Group had representatives from Social Work, Psychology, Law Enforcement, CORI, the Bishops Committee on Child Protection, Teaching as well as two survivors of clerical and religious sexual abuse.
2003 - August - A set of good practice guidelines entitled Working with Children and Young People in the Catholic Church Community in Ireland were developed by the Bishops’ Child Protection Office in collaboration with its Committee on Child Protection. These guidelines were distributed to all dioceses and religious congregations.
2003 - December - Publication of Time to Listen - Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland. This report was a milestone in that it was the first occasion internationally in which the Catholic Church had commissioned independent research into clerical child sexual abuse. The study not only assessed the impact of abuse on victims and abusers, but it also examined these effects on their families, colleagues and on wider society. See: (http://www.catholiccommunications.ie/rcsi/).
2004 - The Bishops’ Child Protection Office commences its National Training Initiative in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Twenty participants from nine dioceses are being trained as Child Protection Trainers. Following their accreditation in June 2005, they will train Facilitators in their own dioceses to provide information and support in developing safe practice procedures for dealing with young people within parishes.
2005 - January - The Working Group on Child Protection (the Lynott Group) unanimously endorses its final report ‘Our Children, Our Church’. This is a comprehensive and integrated child protection policy for the Irish Catholic Church.
* 2005 – June - ‘Our Children, Our Church’ was approved and adopted by the Irish Bishops Conference.
2005 – October – The Bishops of Ireland received informal approval from Rome to implement the document ‘Our Children, Our Church’ on an interim basis.
2006 – Following the Publication of Our Children Our Church, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church is established. The role of the National Board is to develop a unified approach to child protection across Ireland. It also serves to advise it’s three sponsoring bodies the Irish Bishop’s Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union on best practice relating to Child Protection Policies and procedures.
2007 – The National Board establish a Safeguarding Office and appoint their first Chief Executive Officer Ian Elliott. Apart from its advisory function, the Board aims through the development of policies and procedures, to guide all constituent members of the Church, in the direction of best practice in safeguarding children. The Board also monitors best practice in the various parts of the Church, through processes of audit and review.
2009 – The Safeguarding Office introduce new guidelines “Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland” This document can be downloaded at www.safeguarding.ie
