Child protection goes global from the ground up

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Some parts of the world see swift attention paid to victims of sexual abuse and others still experience delays or a mishandling of allegations.This imbalance, one Jesuit expert has said, reflects how years of papal pleas and Vatican mandates have not been received or implemented consistently everywhere.

Because the church’s typical top-down approach in getting the message out may not be enough, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner is spearheading a complementary course: a global alliance built and grown from the ground up by individual priests, religious and laity along with Catholic universities, religious orders and bishops’ conferences.

Father Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, told Catholic News Service in late December of the center’s plan to launch the new alliance in the coming months.