Fostering a safe and supportive environment, especially where children and vulnerable people are concerned, has been at the forefront of the mission of the Society of Jesus. It is in fact one of three important matters entrusted by General Congregation 36 to Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ to “promote within the Society and its ministries a consistent culture of protection and safety of minors”, acknowledging that there remains much more to be done in becoming real advocates of the protection of minors.
There are currently four Jesuits from our conference who are in Rome for exactly this purpose. Fr James Wenceslao U Gascon SJ from the Philippines, Fr Agustinus Tanudjaja SJ from Malaysia-Singapore Region, Fr Alis W Prasetya SJ from Indonesia, and Fr Vincent Phuc Minh Nguyen SJ from Vietnam are just beginning their diploma course on safeguarding at the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
CCP’s diploma course is the only safeguarding education programme that formally incorporates Catholic teaching. The participants of the programme learn not only the competencies within the field of safeguarding, but also how to relate the lessons in the course to their own cultural realities. For our participants, this is important as they are expected to lead in promoting safeguarding in their home provinces.
Fr Gascon is the Convener of the Safety in Ministry Network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, as well as the Safeguarding Officer of the Philippine Province. His training in Rome helps prepare him to lead a similar diploma course on safeguarding to be offered by the Catholic Safeguarding Institute (CSI) this coming school year, from August to December. CSI, which is based at the Ateneo de Manila University, seeks to offer a safeguarding programme suited to the church in the Asia Pacific context. Fr Gascon is the Educational Program Director and Chaplain of the institute.
Since 2011, the Archdiocese of Singapore has had in place a Professional Standards Office that deals with sexual abuse against children and young people. In the last two years, the Malaysia-Singapore Jesuit Region has held safeguarding workshops in addition to those conducted by the Professional Standards Office. Fr Tanudjaja, who is a member of the region’s safeguarding team, is open to discovering what God has in store for him, trusting that it will be something useful, which he can take back to Singapore at the end of the course. “So far, the journey has been smooth,” he says, grateful, among many things, for his three companions from the conference.
Fr Prasetya brings with him the hope of the Indonesian Church to create a safe and healthy environment and ministry. “I realise that it is a big project that needs a big heart to do,” he says. As the safeguarding delegate of the Indonesian Province, he looks forward to learning the pedagogy of creating and managing a culture of safety in ministry, and to network with others from different cultures and backgrounds engaged in the same field.
Collaboration is also top of mind for Fr Phuc, particularly in developing a programme that will help children and adolescents in Vietnam who have been abused to recover and lead productive lives. “It’s important for me that I really care about children who have been abused,” he says. “What are the tragic consequences they have to endure?”
Fr Phuc will go on to study Psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University after his course at CCP to prepare him for formation work in Vietnam. He is motivated by a desire to gain a deeper understanding of psychology, ethics, and the factors required for the overall growth and development of children. He also wants to know what drives people who violate children to commit such acts, and what we can do together to prevent and reduce child abuse. “We can do something to help heal their injuries,” he says, “and help them somehow grow up normally.”