A Letter for Safeguarding Sunday from Bishop Patrick for parish
newsletters and / or parish noticeboards Sixth Sunday of Easter
Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May 2024
“This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you.”
(John 15:12) Today is Safeguarding Sunday. It’s an opportunity to reflect
a little on our ongoing journey as a diocese to build a safer environment
for every person. You will recall that the Elliott review in 2020
recommended that the Catholic Church in England and Wales put in
place a national safeguarding body. In July 2021 the Catholic
Safeguarding Standards Agency was formed. Its task is to ensure that all
dioceses are regulated to meet the national standards recommended in
the Elliott Report.
As a diocese, our priority is to ensure that we are providing a safe
environment for all those who come in contact with our parishes,
chaplaincies, and the Catholic organisations at work throughout the
diocese. So I do want to assure you that the diocese is very much
committed to embedding robust safeguarding standards. The
professional support of our Diocesan Safeguarding Department now
enables the safer recruitment and training of all clergy, employees and
volunteers. It also ensures that we are transparent and accountable in
the way that all allegations and concerns are managed.
I wish to thank the Diocesan Safeguarding Department of Rachael
Campion, Alan Booth and Jane Black for all their good work. I would also
like to express my gratitude to the priests and parish safeguarding
representatives for their generous commitment to improving
safeguarding practices in their parishes. Additional training for clergy and
parish safeguarding representatives is now in place. There is also
safeguarding information available on the diocesan website, and an
easy to read and comprehensive guide to safeguarding has been
produced in the form of a very helpful Parish Safeguarding Handbook.
Please do take a look at this material because it is the responsibility of
each of us to help ensure that our churches and chaplaincies are both
safe and welcoming. This is something that cannot just be left to the
Diocesan Safeguarding Department, the clergy and the parish
safeguarding representatives.
From meeting with and listening to victims and survivors of child sexual
abuse I have come to understand, ever more deeply, that sexual abuse
not only heinously violates a child at the time of their abuse, but it all too
often cruelly robs a child of their future. Victims and survivors of sexual
abuse continue to carry throughout their lives the painful and debilitating
consequences of the grave crime of sexual abuse. I do not
underestimate the traumatic and life-long consequences of sexual abuse
upon their lives and how it also affects their families and parish
communities. Please know that my door, and that of our Diocesan
Safeguarding Department, is always open to anyone affected by abuse.
Like you, I continue to love Christ’s Church, but I acknowledge that
sexual abuse has stained the face of the Church and it has undermined
her mission. I feel a deep sense of shame for this abuse. So, as Bishop,
I am committed to ensuring that we do everything that we each can to
learn from the past and to protect and keep safe the most vulnerable in
our communities. There can be no room in our diocese for complacency
or for not taking seriously the need for vigilance on the part of all of us.
Thank you for doing all you can to support your parish priest and parish
safeguarding representative* in fostering a deeper and more evident
culture of safeguarding, care and protection for everyone in your parish
or chaplaincy.
With my prayers and gratitude, Rt Rev Patrick McKinney
