Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Bishops ‘supporting’ child safety audits

THE body charged with safeguarding children in the Catholic Church has said all the country’s bishops are participating in the church’s audit into child protection practices, despite media reports to the contrary.

A spokesman for the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) said that as stated in its annual report of 2010, which was published on May 11 last, an agreed set of documents had been finalised to enable the revival of the diocesan audits.

The process had been stalled last year after data protection concerns were expressed by the bishops which they claimed meant they could not supply all information requested.

"Since the recommencement of the audit process in late April of this year, the board can confirm that three further diocesan audits will have been completed by the end of this month. It is the expectation of the National Board that this impetus will be maintained over the coming year," the NBSCCC spokesman said.

He added that since the data protection issue had been resolved the NBSCCC "had experienced no refusal to co-operate by bishops with the audit."

The spokesman said there is a commitment to the NBSCCC, from the bishops, "to support this process and to go forward in partnership to foster, throughout the Catholic Church, best practice child safeguarding.

"Everybody is co-operating and doing what they are supposed to," the spokesman said.

Last month, the Data Protection Commissioner refuted claims by the Catholic bishops that the audit’s progress was being impeded by laws restricting access to sensitive personal information.

All data protection issues affecting the independent audit of the Church’s child abuse reporting obligations were resolved a year-and-a-half ago, the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said.

The comment came after a statement from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference calling on the Government to "take the necessary measures" to deal with data protection issues so that the NBSCCC could fulfil its job.

Part of the issues related to the fact that the Catholic Church in Ireland is not one legal body, but an organisation with 164 separate, legal entities, comprising dioceses (some cross-border) and religious orders.

When the latest round of NBSCCC audits are finalised at the end of this month, it will mean that six audits in total will have been completed.

However, the NBSCCC still has a long journey ahead however as it has to complete 186 audits into the country’s dioceses, missionary unions and religious orders.

The spokesman said it had been decided to first complete the diocesan audits and then proceed to the audits of the missionary unions and religious orders.

"No timeframe is available at this stage for completing all the audits," the NBSCCC spokesman said.