Critical reflection on child protection policies dealing with clerical sexual abuse of children within the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria : pastoral and missiological implications

Abstract

The Catholic Church worldwide is struggling with a scandal of clerical sexual abuse of children. As result the Catholic Church globally has lost millions of members in the last decades. Just in the US, about 33.3% of Catholics, hold an unfavourable view of the Church because of the clerical sexual abuse of children in the church. Also, the recent defrocking of an American cardinal and the conviction of an Australian Cardinal has put the church on the spotlight in very negative way. (YouGov America 2019). Although fewer reports have been published about the situation in Nigeria, the same trend is threatening the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria. According to the testimonies of many people given to the Network of people abused by priests the decline of the Catholic Church is caused to a large extent by distrust in the clergy because of sexual abuse scandals that have been exposed. In 2019, 16 000 people have launched complaints of having been sexually abused by Catholic priests as reported by the SNAP organization. Pope Francis promulgated new norms in his Proprio Vos estis lux mundi with guidelines for bishops and other senior church officials on how to deal with clerical child sex abuse claims. In this declaration he called for the procedures to be laid out step-by-step in policies in each diocese of the Roman Catholic Church around the world. These guidelines are now slowly being implemented in parts of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria, but this research will argue that a deeper theological motivation, contextualization and practical policies on implementing the guidelines in all the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria is urgently needed. This desk-based research concluded that the issue of clerical sexual abuse in Nigeria could be addressed using a proactive approach where the church will safeguard the rights of children through children's ministry, provide healing to victims and abusers through psychotherapy, and collaborate with other government and non-governmental agencies in managing the problem.

The Catholic Church worldwide is struggling with a scandal of clerical sexual abuse of children. As result the Catholic Church globally has lost millions of members in the last

decades. Just in the US, about 33.3% of Catholics, hold an unfavourable view of the Church because of the clerical sexual abuse of children in the church. Also, the recent defrocking of an American cardinal and the conviction of an Australian Cardinal has put the church on the spotlight in very negative way. (YouGov America 2019). Although fewer reports have been published about the situation in Nigeria, the same trend is threatening the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria. According to the testimonies of many people given to the Network of people abused by priests the decline of the Catholic Church is caused to a large extent by distrust in the clergy because of sexual abuse scandals that have been exposed. In 2019, 16 000 people have launched complaints of having been sexually abused by Catholic priests as reported by the SNAP organization. Pope Francis promulgated new norms in his Proprio Vos estis lux mundi with guidelines for bishops and other senior church officials on how to deal with clerical child sex abuse claims. In this declaration he called for the procedures to be laid out step-by-step in policies in each diocese of the Roman Catholic Church around the world. These guidelines are now slowly being implemented in parts of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria, but this research will argue that a deeper theological motivation, contextualization and practical policies on implementing the guidelines in all the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria is urgently needed.This desk-based research concluded that the issue of clerical sexual abuse in Nigeria could be addressed using a proactive approach where the church will safeguard the rights of children through children's ministry, provide healing to victims and abusers through psychotherapy, and collaborate with other government and non-governmental agencies in managing the problem.