It Needs To Stop
ROME – Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Montreal unveiled a new set of protocols implemented as the result of an independent investigation into a local abuse case which identified several holes in the previous system.
According to the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lepine, one driving idea behind the reform is that “we need prevention, and good prevention.”
Abuse, Lepine told Crux, “Goes so much against Jesus, it goes so much against our Christian faith…People don’t want abuses, but they happen; people want to prevent them, but they happen; people want to listen to the victims, but they don’t hear them.”
While abuse might seem impossible to stop, Lepine said he believes that “where there’s a will, there’s a way. We need to want it to stop, [and] it needs to stop.”
Among other things, the new protocols include a revamped complaint process and the appointment of an independent ombudsman, a position that will be filled by lawyer and mental health expert Marie Christine Kirouack.
Under the new process, all clergy, staff, and volunteers within the Archdiocese of Montreal are required to report all information they have about a potential complaint to the ombudsman “without delay.”