Last week, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published Vademecum ("Handbook") a 17-page step-by-step-guide to help bishops and other Church religious administrators handle accusations of abuse by clerics against minors.

Complaints of abuse in the New Zealand Catholic Church are handled under the A Path to Healing, Te Houhanga Rongo protocols, introduced by the bishops in 1993 and updated several times since.

The Church urges victims of abuse past and present to complain to the Police or, if victims prefer, to the Church's National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS), which can appoint independent investigators to examine complaints.

Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan Archbishop of New Zealand, said he and his fellow bishops would look at the Vademecum guidelines closely and discuss them at their next full Conference meeting, in September.

"It is a complex document," said Cardinal Dew. "We will be looking carefully to see where it fits in with the civil and criminal law of New Zealand.

"The bishops believe that every person has an innate human dignity - te tapu o te tangata - and therefore all forms of abuse are unacceptable and indefensible."

Cardinal Dew said NOPS was also reviewing the Vademecum document to identify if changes may be needed in A Path to Healing.

Click here for further information about Vademecum and to read the document.

Prof. Myriam Wijlens, a canon lawyer and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, has hailed the new Vademecum on procedures regarding cases of sexual abuse of minors, calling it a major step forward in seeking justice and truth.

Source

• Supplied: David McLoughlin
  Communications Adviser, NZ Catholic Bishops
  Te Huinga o ngâ Pîhopa Katorika o Aotearoa
• vaticannews.va
• rnz.co.nz
• Image: facebook.com

The strongly worded document, entitled Welcoming Christ in Refugees and Forcibly Displaced Persons, was released jointly by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

It says Catholic laity have an obligation to root out traces of xenophobia in their hearts and recognise refugees as their brothers and sisters — children of God whose dignity must be protected.

Since the mid-1980s, the document says, the debate surrounding refugees and other asylum seekers has become "a forum for political and administrative election purposes, which fed hostile and aggressive attitudes among the electorate".

At a news conference, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio, said many governments have adopted policies that subject refugees to "confined detention, interment in refugee camps, and having their freedom to travel and their right to work restricted".

In effect, he said, countries are focused more on deterring newcomers from reaching their shores than they are on offering protection and a welcome to suffering people fleeing situations that threatened their lives and dignity.

From a Catholic point of view, he said, "every policy, initiative or intervention in this area must be inspired by the principle of the centrality and dignity of the human person".

Data compiled by Cardinal Veglio's office indicates that in 2012 there were some 16 million officially recognised refugees in the world and 28.8 million internally displaced persons.

In addition, an estimated 21 million people have been trafficked, including 4.5 million for sexual exploitation and 14.2 million for what amounts to slave labour.

The document treats the whole field of migration as a field for Catholic missionary activity.

In addition to supporting Catholic groups, particularly women's religious orders that are rescuing victims and helping them recover, the document says lay Catholics need to look at how their investing or buying habits may actually promote trafficking for low-cost labour, including in the fields of manufacturing, textiles and agriculture.

Sources:

Vatican Information Service

Catholic News Service

Image: UCANews