Offering victims and survivors hospitality and care for the wounds of the soul, in the style of the good Samaritan. Listening with the ear of the heart, so that every testimony finds not forms to fill out, but merciful hearts from which to be reborn. This is one of the “commitments” that Pope Francis asks for in the message sent to participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (March 24-28). “May the Holy Spirit, master of living memory, preserve us from the temptation to archive pain instead of healing it,” affirms the Pontiff.
The other two commitments that the Pope asks for in the message to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors are “to grow in common work with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia” and “to build alliances with extra-ecclesial realities – civil authorities, experts, associations – so that protection becomes a universal language.” Francis emphasizes in the message that the “precious service” of the Commission – established by him on March 22, 2014, and chaired by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop Emeritus of Boston – “is like ‘oxygen’ for local Churches and religious communities, because where a child or vulnerable person is safe, there Christ is served and honored.”
“In the daily fabric of your work – especially in the most disadvantaged areas – a prophetic truth is concretized: the prevention of abuse is not a blanket to spread over emergencies, but one of the foundations on which to build communities faithful to the Gospel,” he continues. For this reason, “I express my gratitude to you.” “Your work – notes Francis – is not limited to protocols to apply, but promotes protection measures: education that educates, checks that prevent, listening that restores dignity.”
“When you establish prevention practices, even in the most remote communities, you are writing a promise – he emphasizes -: that every child, every vulnerable person, will find in the ecclesial community a safe environment. This is the engine of what should be for us an integral conversion.” “In these ten years, you have grown a safety net in the Church. Keep going! – the Pope concludes – Continue to be sentinels who watch while the world sleeps.” Published today, the message is dated “Rome, Policlinico ‘A. Gemelli’, March 20, 2025”.
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