International conference sheds light on the clerical abuse of disabled individuals

Children with psychological or intellectual disabilities and people who are deaf, blind or autistic are up to five times more likely to suffer abuse

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Attendees of the International Safeguarding Conference organized by the Institute of Anthropology (or IADC) at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. (Video screen grab)

June 21, 2024
By Claire Giangravé



VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Safeguarding experts and abuse survivors met at the Gregorian University this week to address clerical abuse of disabled individuals, shedding light on the scope and challenges of this often unaddressed reality.

People living with psychological and physical disabilities are disproportionately more likely to become victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Disabled children are 3.1 times more likely to be sexually abused and 3.9 times more likely to be emotionally abused, according to The Safeguarding Company.

Children with psychological or intellectual disabilities and people who are deaf, blind or autistic are up to 5 times more likely to suffer abuse.

The team of 350 experts in safeguarding and abuse prevention from 55 countries met June 18-21 for the annual International Safeguarding Conference organized by the Institute of Anthropology (or IADC) at the Gregorian University to discuss policies, challenges and risks facing the disabled.

“There is a necessity to really look closely to how people deal with disabled persons especially when in care, how they are helped to realize what abuse is and looks like and feels like and then give them the opportunity to use reporting channels tailored to their needs and capacities,” said Fr. Hans Zollner, the director of the IADC, in an interview with RNS on Friday (June 21).

Within the church, high-profile cases of abuse against disabled people or vulnerable adults have shed light on the lack of protections for the disabled. In 2019 an Argentine court found two priests guilty of sexually abusing 10 disabled individuals at Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children between 2004 and 2016. A 900-page report issued in January delved into the case of the French theologian and activist Jean Vanier, founder of l’Arche, the charitable organization for people living with intellectual disabilities, who abused six non-disabled women between 1970 and 2005.

Fr. Hans Zollner, head of the safeguarding institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University, poses for photos in Rome before an interview with The Associated Press, Oct. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

“It has shone a light on the necessity of really supervising such highly esteemed works of charity,” Zollner said, adding that church authorities should not become complacent just because a charismatic leader seems exemplary. “It should not deter us from being really vigilant of the traps and the likelihood of disabled people being abused,” he added.

Pope Francis convened a summit of abuse-prevention experts and victims at the Vatican in February 2019 to address the clerical abuse crisis and enact a “zero tolerance” policy within the institution. Following the event, the pope issued a decree, Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You Are the Light of the World” in English), where he ordered sweeping reforms for accountability and mandatory reporting of abuse for priests and religious. In the document he also extended the canon law protections for vulnerable adults.

Zollner praised the Catholic Church’s current effort to enforce accountability and safeguarding in dioceses all over the world today and suggested that the institution may become a leader in some parts of the world in its advocacy for the protection of children and vulnerable adults from abuse.

“When it comes to accountability for coverup and in the area of dealing with the crimes of the past, the church has a lot to do, and, honestly, we are lagging behind,” Zollner admitted.

Applying safeguarding measures throughout the thousands of Catholic charities, institutions, schools and organizations is a difficult task, he admitted, especially since the Catholic Church is not a monolithic structure and exists in widely different cultural, ethnic and geographic realities.

Francesco Zanardi, who leads The Abuse Network, the largest clerical abuse survivor advocacy group in Italy, said he has often encountered cases in his country where people suffering from intellectual and physical disabilities became victims of abuse.

“This is why we put an emphasis on vulnerable adults,” Zanardi told RNS on Friday. He added that cultural understandings of disability and what qualifies as abuse play a big role in how these cases are handled within the Vatican and in state courts.

The statement signed by the IADC conference participants vowed to commit to promoting an awareness and special attention to the needs of disabled people, but it also invited religious and non-religious institutions to listen to disabled people directly.

“They feel that they are invisible and overlooked,” Zollner said, adding that they should have a voice in how they can be protected and what mechanisms should be put in place that tailor to their specific needs for the prevention and reporting of abuse.

The next safeguarding conference will take place in June 2025, focusing on the theme “Women of Faith, Women of Strength,” and will address abuse within female religious institutions.

Christian Reformed synod tells LGBTQ-affirming churches to repent or disaffiliate

At its national synod this week, the Christian Reformed Church in North America voted to put congregational leaders on 'limited suspension' if their churches publicly welcome LGBTQ+ members, violating the CRCNA's official stance on same-sex relationships.

ALBERTA HAS THE HIGHEST POPULATION OF CHRISTIAN REFORMED IN CANADA

Delegates sing during the Christian Reformed Church annual synod at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo by Ethan Meyers)

June 21, 2024
By Ethan Meyers


GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (RNS) — At its annual national meeting this week, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, one of the oldest denominations in the United States, voted 134-50 on Wednesday (June 19) to put congregational leaders on “limited suspension” if their churches publicly welcome LGBTQ+ members, violating the CRCNA’s official stance on same-sex relationships.

The synod also voted Tuesday (June 18) to tighten rules for how congregations voice their differences with the ruling body of the denomination and asked for new resources for dissenting churches as they seek to realign or disaffiliate in the wake of the week’s decisions.

Like other Christian denominations in recent years, the CRCNA has been debating inclusion and participation in church life for LGBTQ+ individuals and couples. Two years ago, the CRCNA synod voted to include “homosexual sex” alongside other behaviors, such as adultery, polyamory and pornography usage, in its official definition of “unchastity.” The move elevated the church’s stance against LGBTQ+ behavior to confessional status, meaning that anyone who holds office in the church is expected to uphold this belief.



Sandy and Bob Navis visit the Christian Reformed Church annual synod in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo by Ethan Meyers)

Sandy Navis and her husband, Bob, members at Sherman Street CRC in Grand Rapids, came to watch the deliberations, feeling it was important to be a “presence to support the minority of (LGBTQ+)-affirming delegates,” said Sandy Navis. “I really felt called by God to come and be an observer all week … I think things like this need to be witnessed. They shouldn’t be done in private.”

How exactly the decision will be implemented will be left largely in the hands of regional subdivisions of the CRCNA, known as classes (singular: classis). Elizabeth Koning said her church, Hessel Park Church in Champaign, Illinois, is the only church in Classis Chicago South to have a publicly available statement that affirms LGBTQ+ people.

Before attending synod as a deacon delegate this year, Koning said she didn’t know what to expect. “I came here to make sure that our experience as a church was represented, our point of view and understanding of Scripture was represented. And I came here because I really love the CRC, and I am invested in its future, and I was hoping that future would include me,” Koning said.

She added that while there are many conversations ahead about how to proceed at Hessel Park, Koning doesn’t expect her church to be interested in revoking its statement. The church spent more than a year in conversation with its members and other organizations while drafting its statement, according to Koning.

For those in favor of the decision, the move is seen as a chance for everyone in the denomination to follow Christ in “humility and joy,” according to the Rev. Michael Bentley, pastor at Trinity CRC in St. Louis, Missouri. Bentley said pastors have a responsibility to “minister like Jesus did and still say, ‘I love you, I’m calling you out of your sin, and Jesus calls you out of your sin.’”

He emphasized that the move shouldn’t be seen as only applying to certain churches and is instead a reminder that “we are all under the yoke of Christ.”

As the denomination moves forward, Bentley said he hopes that all of its members will be “able to be ministered to and loved and brought to walk with Christ gently.”

But the Rev. Ryan Schreiber, pastor of Grace CRC in Grand Rapids, which has a publicly available statement supporting LGBTQ+ involvement, said the synod vote threatens the existence of the denomination.


The Christian Reformed Church annual synod meets at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (Video screen grab)

The pastor delegate from Classis Grand Rapids East, who said he took on a “very visible” role at this week’s synod, said Grace CRC will now begin the process of disaffiliating itself with the CRCNA. While he appreciates that the synod was “very generous in the terms outlined for churches like mine, that are openly affirming,” Schreiber is deeply concerned that the split over LGBTQ+ will deprive the denomination of needed resources.

“There is a coalition of churches in the Christian Reformed Church that is turning the polity of the Christian Reformed Church into a steamroller,” moving to push out most of the churches in his classis, Schreiber said.

In the CRCNA, a denomination of roughly 200,000 members, he said, this creates a real risk of financial collapse. He claimed that many churches now on the path to disaffiliation have “historically given much more in ministry shares to the Christian Reformed Church than any other classes.”

But Schreiber believed he was also acting in the best interest of the church, saying he was “called to this moment by God to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.” Schreiber said that in his time in Russia as a missionary, he encountered the concept of “yurodivye,” or “holy fools” — those who challenged the behavior of the Russian tsars on moral grounds.

Describing his involvement with this year’s Synod, Schreiber said he “took on the role of a yurodivye, or God’s fool, in front of an all-powerful Synod.”

Delegates mingle during the Christian Reformed Church annual synod at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo by Ethan Meyers)

Even as it reaffirmed its belief that same-sex sex is sinful, synod delegates declined to call it a “salvation issue,” which may lead some to interpret it as a more egregious sin than others.

The synod also declined to label the belief that the Bible sanctions same-sex marriage a heresy, noting that the overture, or proposed ballot item asking for this belief to be formally declared heretical, “does not meet the high standards of definition and articulation needed for declaring a heresy.”

The synod leaves a bittersweet feeling. Schreiber is grieved by the direction the denomination is moving. “I love the Christian Reformed Church with all my heart … As I said, I am deeply concerned about the Christian Reformed Church, and especially those that I’m leaving behind, gentle conservatives and moderates,” he said.

Sandy Navis wishes the delegates had widened their focus surrounding this year’s decisions. “There’s so much talk that makes it seem as though the churches who are working towards an affirmation of LGBTQ people are like rebellious children. And I think that that dismisses the thought and the consideration and the deep commitment that affirming churches can have to do God’s work.”

 Martini Judaism

Why the posting of the Ten Commandments is wrong

How could a rabbi criticize the Ten Commandments? Just watch me.

Workers repaint a Ten Commandments billboard off of Interstate 71 on Election Day near Chenoweth, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2023. Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

June 20, 2024

By Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — The headlines could have read, “Sacred Jewish text to be posted in Louisiana classrooms; most Jews are opposed.”

That headline would have been correct.

Yes, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana has signed a law that mandates the Ten Commandments be posted in every public education classroom in the state — the first state to do so.

And, yes, the Ten Commandments are a sacred Jewish text (known as the aseret ha-dibrot, the 10 utterances), which is not the reason why he has made that a mandate. I doubt he has reflected overly much on their Jewish origin; for him, they are part of that amorphous thing called “the Judeo-Christian tradition” — useful because, supposedly, such a posting will create a more moral generation of young people.

But, no, this rabbi is not happy about this. I daresay I speak for many if not most Jews in America in voicing my displeasure and my concern.

Why?

First, we might think the Ten Commandments are simply a list of basic moral rules. They are a religious text that comes from a particular religious tradition. The revelation of those commandments forms the core of the Jewish covenant with God.

As such, this is a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution, which forbids the government from establishing an official religion. It also specifies that the government must neither promote nor inhibit religion. In this particular instance, the religion in question just happens to be mine (though, through that “Judeo-Christian” thing, it is not only “mine”). This does not make me feel better.

But, you will protest, doesn’t the fact that this is “Judeo-Christian” have any bearing on the matter? After all, this is a “Judeo-Christian” country.

To which I would say: Dwight David Eisenhower just called and he wants his worldview back. That whole idea of “Judeo-Christian” is a nostalgia act — the religious equivalent of a doo-wop revival. This country is Christian (and every flavor thereof), Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Mormon, Wiccan, etc., etc. — and it is also agnostic, atheist and everything in between. Again, posting the Ten Commandments favors one particular religious tradition as a source of inspiration and guidance.

Moreover, we have an additional problem: Which version of the Ten Commandments?

There are two versions of the Ten Commandments/Aseret Ha-dibrot in the Torah. Here is a summary of the list in Exodus 20:

1. I am God, Who brought you out of Egypt.
2. Don’t make images, and worship other gods.
3. Don’t swear falsely by My name.
4. Remember the Sabbath.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Don’t murder.
7. Don’t commit adultery.
8. Don’t steal.
9. Don’t bear false witness.
10. Don’t covet what your neighbor has.

There is a second version in Deuteronomy 5. The two versions differ from each other in subtle, yet important ways. The Exodus version says Jews must “remember” the Sabbath; the Deuteronomy version says Jews must “observe” the Sabbath. More than that, the Ten Commandments reappear in the Holiness Code of Leviticus 19.

Let’s add to the problem: Whose Ten Commandments? We have seen there are two versions in the Torah.

Let’s make it more complicated. There are two Christian versions.

First, the Catholic version.

1. I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange Gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
4. Honor your father and mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Notice: In this version, the first two commandments are combined into one, except that it omits the passage about graven images, and the last commandment about coveting is divided into two — one about your neighbor’s wife, and the other about your neighbor’s goods. 

There is also the Protestant version:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor’s.

The version of the Ten Commandments that is about to find a place on classroom walls in Louisiana? That would be the Protestant version.

So, the placing of a Protestant text will seem, to many people, as the government establishment of a religion.

For me, as for many of us, that would be enough reason to oppose this legislation. That opposition need not be, and should not be, the sole responsibility of secular groups. All religions should oppose it as well — even, and especially, Protestants who might choose not to view this as a theological victory, but as a moment to say “gulp” and to think about the American body politic.

Finally, why do I oppose the posting of the Ten Commandments?

First, let me channel my inner Hebrew scholar. The Christian versions canonize a mistranslation of the sixth commandment — lo tirtzach. It does not say “you shall not kill”; rather, “you shall not murder.” The biblical tradition understands that there is a difference between murder — the wanton taking of a human life — and killing, which might be accidental or even, at times, tragically necessary.

Snark alert: If, in fact, Louisiana (and perhaps other states) would want to post the Ten Commandments, with their directive to “not kill,” the least we could expect is some kind of activism regarding access to firearms. Nothing would be more effective in making the words of that commandment into a civic reality.

But, second: The Ten Commandments are too “nice,” too basic, too Hallmark greeting card. Even though no one has asked me, I would put a different biblical text into classrooms.

Which text would that be? How about Leviticus 19, the Holiness Code? True, you get the Ten Commandments in there anyway. But there are some other necessary gems in there.

• Leave the corners of your field for the poor. That is the commandment to engage in charitable acts that ameliorate poverty.
• “The wages of your neighbor shall not remain with you until morning.” Pay your workers on time. Don’t make someone besmirch their own dignity by pleading and/or waiting for what is due them.
• “Don’t insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block before the blind.” This means not to take advantage of those with disabilities (though in the rabbinic tradition, “putting a stumbling block before the blind” also means taking advantage of someone).
• “Do not render an unfair decision, and do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich.” Create a society that centers itself on justice.
• “Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor” (or: “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds”). Reject violence of any kind, and do not be a bystander to such violence.
• Do not hate. Reprove people. Build a society based on a rejection of enmity, and one that is based on honest critique.
• Don’t bear grudges. Love your neighbor as yourself. (If you were going to choose one, and only one text for display, perhaps it should be “love your neighbor as yourself,” which also has its Christian version.)
• And then, skipping a bunch of verses: Show deference to the elderly.
• “When strangers reside with you in your land, you shall not wrong them.
  The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself. … ” Yes, that includes everyone — including immigrants.
• Have honest weights and measures. Create a society based on fairness.

Would I really call for putting these verses into classrooms? Obviously not.

But that is the kind of society I would want to create.

Which answers the question: WWMD?

What would Moses do?

Spiritual Politics

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate violates its own religious freedom heritage

It's a legal birthright that goes back to the French Revolution and Thomas Jefferson.

Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during his inauguration ceremony at the State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

June 21, 2024

By Mark Silk

(RNS) — Signing the bill Wednesday (June 19) that mandates display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry declared, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses.” 

That may not be on a par with the probably apocryphal declaration attributed to Texas Governor Ma Ferguson (“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for the children of Texas!”), but it’s no more the case: The ancient Sumerian King Ur-Nammu promulgated the oldest extant law code, more than six centuries before Moses toted those tablets down from Mt. Sinai.

Not that priority in law-giving is the real point of the Louisiana law. The real point is that the giver of the Decalogue was none other than (the Bible says) God Almighty. Or, as the Supreme Court declared in striking down a similar law 44 years ago, “The pre-eminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature.” 

To be sure, Gov. Landry & Co. have enclosed their religious purpose in secular packing material. Alongside the Ten Commandments, classrooms will be obliged to display three major documents from American history — the Mayflower Compact (1620), the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787).

But if Landry truly wished to enlighten the children of Louisiana as to the rule of law in their state, he would also have mandated display of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was passed by the French National Assembly after the French Revolution in 1789. That’s because Louisiana owes its legal system to the French Revolution.

Uniquely among the states of the Union, that system is based on the Napoleonic Code, which was designed to incorporate thousands of decrees that had been passed under France’s revolutionary government. And let it be noted that Thomas Jefferson had a hand in drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was presented to the French General Assembly while he was serving as U.S. minister to France, three days before the storming of the Bastille.  

Three years earlier, the Virginia General Assembly had passed Jefferson’s bill establishing religious freedom, which stipulated that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief.”

This notion was reprised in item 10 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man; to wit: “No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.”

It is to be expected that the state-mandated classroom display of the Ten Commandments will disquiet some Louisiana students and/or their parents on account of their religious views. Unless the Supreme Court ends up reaffirming its earlier decision, they’ll just have to deal