The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore is the latest to publish its updated policies, procedures and codes of behaviour for the safeguarding of children.The document was launched in St John’s Pastoral Centre by Ms Teresa Devlin, Director of Safeguarding at the National Office for Safeguarding Children in Ireland, at a function that was attended by Bishop Willie Lee, parish representatives and priests from across the diocese.
The initiative brings policies and procedures in the diocese in line with the standards of the Church, which were published in 2008.
Ms Devlin said she is confident the new policy would help ensure that correct procedures were followed at all times and said children must have “a voice in their own care.”
"We will be a richer Church for listening to children and having them engaged," she remarked.
Bishop Lee said the new policy is a “tangible expression of our commitment to safeguard children" and gave paramount consideration to the child and young person.
Dr Lee assured young people and parents that the church in Waterford and Lismore is “a safe environment for children” and that they would find it a “welcoming, positive and encouraging place to worship, meet and work with others.”
The bishop acknowledged “the shameful truth of past failures" by the Church and said he would ensure, in so far as is humanly possible, that such abuse would never occur in the future in the diocese.
He said the new policy seeks, “to promote an ethos and an approach which gives paramount consideration to the child and young person.”
A lot has been achieved in the past thirteen years in the Waterford and Lismore Diocese in safeguarding children, said the bishop, who stressed that the publication of the new policy is not an end point of the process but an important stage in what would be an ongoing feature of Church life.
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