The National Listening Commission of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, which began operating in June 2023, is advancing in its task of receiving and accompanying possible victims of abuse within the Church, reflects ACI Prensa, a Catholic news portal.
According to this media, delegates from the 18 Bolivian ecclesiastical jurisdictions meet every two months and the most recent meeting was held on February 9; its objective was to learn about the work of implementing the Action Protocols for the reception of complaints, news and reports in each diocese.
According to ACI Prensa, Nancy Loredo, national coordinator of the Commission, said: “In the last meeting we learned about the dynamics of the jurisdictions that presented their protocols, in what line they are in”.
Loredo said that the meeting “has been interesting because socializing their protocols, codes of conduct, information booklets or certain parameters, allows them to strengthen their actions, it is an exchange of experience and knowledge of good practices”.
“Each jurisdiction advances from its cultural background, the exchange of knowledge in their journey, encourages those responsible for this commission to achieve progress in openness towards the victims,” she said, quoted by ACI Prensa.
Reference is made to the protocols as part of a process of formation in the culture of prevention, based on the ethics of care and adequate attention to cases of sexual violence in ecclesial environments.
“The document presents general guidelines for action in possible situations of denunciations of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable persons. It is oriented to prevent, detect and denounce, as well as to act quickly and firmly in the face of sexual abuse perpetrated by any member of the personnel or collaborator in the pastoral activities carried out in the particular Churches”, ACI Prensa points out.
Commissions for the prevention and treatment of abuse
The National Listening Commission was created at the initiative of the Episcopate to respond in a timely manner and with concrete actions to the situation of sexual abuse within the Bolivian Church.
While an office for the attention of these crimes had already been created in 2019, in June 2023 its task was operationalized with the creation of the National Commission and three other commissions linked to combating the scourge of abuse: the National Commission for Training and Prevention, the Communication Commission and the Investigation Commission, reports ACI Prensa.
The main purpose of the Listening Commission is to attend to the victims, proceed to the possible denunciation, systematize and refer to the corresponding bishop, according to the procedure indicated by Canon Law.