THE ANGLOPHONE Conference 2010 on Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, which was to take place in Ireland this year, has been cancelled to allow for “reflection” within the Irish church.
Originally planned for All Hallows College in Dublin, the conference was switched to Athlone from May 31st next to June 4th before it was decided to cancel it.
The gathering, which is attended each year by representatives of bishops’ conferences in the English-speaking world and lay experts in child protection, was held at the Vatican last year and in Washington DC in 2008.
Meanwhile Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady is to meet abuse victims John Kelly and Patrick Walsh of Irish Soca, Michael O’Brien of Right to Peace, and Dublin abuse victim Marie Collins at separate meetings in Armagh this morning.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Irish Bishops’ Conference said the decision to cancel the Anglophone Conference “has been taken in the light of current circumstances and developments and the huge demand that this has placed on our resources”.
“Following the publication of Pope Benedict’s Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland we are entering into a period of deep reflection and renewal.
“We remain, of course fully committed to developing and disseminating best practice in the area of safeguarding children. It is our fervent hope that we will be able to host an Anglophone Conference some time in the future and to share our experiences of these challenging times.”
The first Anglophone Conference was held in 1998 at Dundrum, Co Tipperary, and was set up to share best practice in helping victims who were abused by priests and religious in the countries represented. Until 2004 it met every two years, since when its meetings have been annual.
Representatives at the conference over the past decade have been from the US, UK, India, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, and Ireland. Last year the Irish Bishops’ Conference was represented at the Vatican meeting by Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey and Dublin Auxiliary Bishop Eamonn Walsh.
Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O’Reilly has also represented the Irish bishops.
A founding member of the conference, Archbishop of Melbourne Phillip Wilson, has said that the nature of the clerical child sex abuse crisis emerging in national churches across the globe had forced the member nations to move the meeting schedule from every two years to every year.
“We have to find the best ways to respond to the victims and their families and to helping them,” he said. There was also the issue of “dealing effectively with the perpetrators” and “criminal issues”, he said.
“We also have to look at issues associated with the selection and training of clergy and religious. And finally, we really have to work hard at creating what is described around the world as a ‘child safe environment’,” he said.