A pontifical university and a
number of Vatican dicasteries are offering a special symposium to help
bishops around the world as they seek to comply with a recent Vatican
mandate to set up guidelines for handling accusations of clerical sex
abuse.
The symposium, which will be held in Rome in February, is meant for
representatives of the world's Catholic bishops' conferences and major
superiors of religious orders.
Titled "Toward Healing and Renewal," the symposium aims to forge "a
global response to the problem of sex abuse and safeguarding the
vulnerable," said a June 13 press statement.
The symposium is being organized by Rome's Pontifical Gregorian
University with the support of various Vatican offices to help bishops
and religious orders "adequately respond to the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith's request to prepare directives and effective
pastoral plans dealing with sex abuse," it said.
The meeting will also look at building a new "multilingual e-learning
center" that would be an online resource for church leaders to access
and distribute resources and best practices dealing with prevention and
helping victims of sex abuse, it said.
The symposium will offer workshops and talks in four languages led by
experts in psychology, pastoral care, law and theology, it said.
The experts will include members of Virtus, which was formed in the
United States in the late 1990s by the National Catholic Risk Retention
Group to develop effective child abuse prevention programs.
The announcement of the symposium comes just one month after the
Vatican's doctrinal congregation said that, within one year, every
bishops' conference in the world must have "clear and coordinated
procedures" for protecting children, assisting victims of abuse, dealing
with accused priests, training clergy and cooperating with civil
authorities.