Safeguarding Trust –

We now have two prospective youth leaders who have done their Safeguarding Trust training. There appears to be a small group of people who don’t see the need for our child protection legislation. We would all prefer not to have to have it, but the reality is that it is absolutely necessary.

Some people appear to feel that having to comply with this legislation casts doubt on their character. There is also the feeling that as we are church members and, in some areas of the parish, everybody has known everybody else for a long time that it is a nonsense to have to comply.

The unfortunate thing is that over 80% of those abused physically, emotionally or psychologically are abused by family members or people known very well to the family. It is a shocking statistic and has led us to the requirement to do what we are doing. The law requires us to follow the state’s “Children First” and the Church’s law also requires us to do the same as every other organisation that works with minors.

It may seem “over-the-top” to require parents, brothers, sisters to do the training in the same way as everybody else, but we have only to look at our newspapers, televisions and listen to the radio to know that our world today is not a very safe place for our children.

I know it is difficult for some people to come to terms with all of this, but I would prefer to be “over-the-top” when it comes to the safety of our young people and those who volunteer to give them opportunities to grow into healthy adults who are not burdened by the horrors of child abuse than to take the risk of them experiencing what nobody should experience.

No matter what I think, I am bound by the law of the land and of the church of Ireland to ensure, as far as is possible, that all minors who take an active part in parish life do so in safety. Our teachers in our school are similarly bound by law to do likewise.