Baroness Scotland addresses Anglophone Safeguarding Conference

Baroness Patricia Scotland

Baroness Patricia Scotland, the new Chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission gave the opening address at the five day Anglophone Safeguarding Conference in Rome (30 May – 3 June)

In her address she described the conference “as one of the most important to be convened anywhere in the world today.”

“I do not wish to minimise any of these momentous issues because each is acutely important. But, I venture to say none, in the end, is as important, or closer to the heart of our humanity, than how we care for and protect the young and the vulnerable. So I do not hesitate to say that what we do and say at this conference has the opportunity of being a game changer, in the sense of understanding the nature of what we in the church have to do to make our contribution to address this most important of issues.”

The Conference (which is held every year) is hosted this year by the Bishops and Religious and the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC) of England and Wales. There are 50 delegates from 20 English speaking countries within the Church. Delegates include clergy, religious and safeguarding staff from these countries.

The text of the full address follows:

It is a real privilege and an honour to be asked to open this conference.

A conference which is one of the most important to be convened anywhere in the world today.

I say that notwithstanding the fact that I'm well aware of the momentous issues which are being debated, or have recently been debated, by world leaders at the G8 and G20, the pressing financial, environmental and political issues, with which the world is currently dealing.

I do not wish to minimise any of these momentous issues because each is acutely important. But, I venture to say none, in the end, is as important, or closer to the heart of our humanity, than how we care for and protect the young and the vulnerable. So I do not hesitate to say that what we do and say at this conference has the opportunity of being a game changer, in the sense of understanding the nature of what we in the church have to do to make our contribution to address this most important of issues.

As many of you will know this conference started off as a conference for bishops and has slowly grown to include safeguarding professionals and other members of the laity. For me this is my first conference, so I am very much the novice, for some of you this is another in the series, but for all of us this is a different format and I hope it will mark a significant milestone in our collective understanding of this subject.

I suppose it is not surprising that I should view this conference with such importance. I recently became Chair of the Safeguarding Commission for England and Wales and am of course influenced by the fact that I have been a practicing family lawyer since 1977, so some 34 years, specialising in child abuse and protection issues, but I think that has only heightened my understanding in order to make the assessment.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Safeguarding teams throughout the Anglophone congregation for their passion and commitment to this issue and each and every one of you for your attendance at this conference today.

We have a rare opportunity to listen, learn and pray together so that the trauma, which is abuse of the vulnerable, can be better identified, targeted, addressed, and hopefully prevented, so that those who are or have been adversely affected by the pernicious consequences of abuse can be healed.

I hope we will use every second of our time together well. I know we will be enriched by what we will hear and share over the next 5 days and by Friday will have a clear direction of travel for our work over the next 12 months. His Holiness has set us quite a challenge and I'm confident that with God's grace we will meet it.

I also know that we are at different stages along the journey of understanding. In some of our countries the policy and strategies are well in place, in others we are just at the point of considering what to do and how to approach this difficult and delicate subject. The biggest advantage we have is that we come together with a spirit of openness, each of us anxious to learn from each other, so I hope that during this conference we will not hesitate to question, explore and challenge because that is how I believe we will best learn.

Knowing that there are so many who will help and support us and that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in our endeavours, will I'm sure fortify us.

We have an opportunity to build on our knowledge and our friendships so that we will, together, be able to better protect the vulnerable in our communities who are in sore need of our understanding, love and protection.

Patricia Scotland

The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC