Missionaries of Africa promote consistent culture of abuse prevention

By John Baptist Tumusiime

The Coordinator for Integrity in Ministry in the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, Fr. Lowrent Kamwaza, tells Vatican News that the Protection of Minors and vulnerable persons against all forms of abuse is a key mission of the Church.

All Catholics, he said, are invited to be part and parcel of this mission to create a safer church for all.

Fr. Kamwanza was speaking in reference to a two-week course on Safeguarding organised by his office in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, for safeguarding delegates of his Congregation. The course started on June 15th and ended on June 30th.

Below is a transcript of Vatican News' interview with Fr. Lowrent Kamwanza.

Q: Explain what you meant in your statement before the training began by Safeguarding and Integrity in Ministry.

Before explaining what integrity in ministry means, let me begin by saying that, just as other Institutions or Congregations in the Church, our Society, ‘the Missionaries of Africa’, is an institute of a Pontifical right, and therefore we profess the evangelical councils: obedience, chastity and simple life style. Linked to this is our profound awareness that, as missionaries we have received from the Church the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the peoples of the African world. And for us to fulfil this mission, we are constantly called to be witnesses of the Kingdom and to share with those willing to receive it, the grace of the Good News. So, our model to this mission is Jesus Christ. Through him, we learn God’s own respect for people and his concern for the most vulnerable, but also, we learn about God’s concern for people’s freedom and development as individuals and as communities. To live up to this calling, integrity is very much needed as an integral part of our mission. As you know, integrity is about cultivating personal quality of being honesty, sincere, welcoming, fraternal, but also having sound spiritual and moral principles in life. For this reason, our society invites all this to live out to this integrity in their mission. Hence, the word Integrity in Ministry. And since, this is an ongoing calling and part of human growth in our mission, our Society created an office attached to the General Council’s to coordinate this concept of integrity in mission. The one occupying this office is called Coordinator for integrity in ministry. He also coordinates safeguarding issues in our Society. His main mission is to help the Society to live evangelical values by ensuring best practice concerning safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and integrity in ministry.

When we talk of safeguarding, we mean, all the measures and mechanisms that as a Society/Congregation, or as a Church/ or any other institution puts in place to ensure that our missionary activities or our members do not cause harm or abuse children and persons in situations of vulnerability. This therefore implies prevention, protection, intervention, case management and pastoral care to victims/survivors and offenders.

Q: Why was it necessary to organize training for your confreres on safeguarding at this material time?

To begin with, Our Society of the Missionaries of Africa, considers the safety and protection of minors and persons in situations of vulnerability as paramount to its missionary activities. For this reason, it has an unwavering commitment to a safer and more accountable Church through creating among its members a consistent culture of safeguarding. This also resonates well with Pope Francis’ pledge towards a better, transparent, and caring Church. Therefore, this training for confreres was necessary for a number of reasons:

To quip members/ confreres to integrate and implement the Society's Safeguarding Policy in their mission areas, to enhance their knowledge in safeguarding policy development and implementation, to furnish them with the necessary knowledge and skills to handle safeguarding incidents appropriately and offer the necessary support and pastoral care to victims, to debrief them on how to collaborate with local Churches in implementing the Memorare initiative of Pope Francis, as championed by the Pontifical Commission from the Protection of Minors (PCPM).

Q: You as the organiser of the training, how do you evaluate it?

As an organizer, I can confidently say that the training achieved its goals and objectives. There is a strong feeling among participants that this training has been a moment of conversion and learning on safeguarding. The confreres have are now becoming familiar with our safeguarding policy and are ready to put measures forward for its implementation in their contexts. There is also a sense of knowledge development on safeguarding among them. Moreover, confreres are ready to collaborate with local churches in raising awareness against abuse of minors and enhance capacity building in their areas of mission.

Q: At the end of the training, what resolutions did the participants make in relation to safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons?

The training was concluded with a strong statement by the participants who stated clearly their commitment to: raise awareness among confreres and in society in general, to break the culture of silence, to promote transparency and accountability, to collaborate, communicate and share experiences on safeguarding issues as they occur and develop, to create safe environments in their areas of mission, to network with the local Church and other stakeholders in safeguarding, to support, care and accompany the victims and survivors and all those affected by different forms of abuse.

All this to restore justice, repair the scandal, gain conversion of the offender, and in rekindling the faith, hope and trust of the people of God, in order to be credible witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Q: In case of abuse, what mechanisms has the Society of the Missionaries of Africa put in place to rehabilitate the victims?

We have a safeguarding policy that we follow for the Society. It states clearly how we members ought to welcome, listen and accompany victims or survivors in case of an incident of an abuse. This is handled by our safeguarding commissions in our different countries of missions. For this reason, in each and every sector we have a safeguarding delegate in charge of this ministry, who serves as a person of reference. He and members of the safeguarding commission of the particular sector, have a role to handle safeguarding issues in collaboration with other stakeholders. We also collaborate with the dioceses and the local churches in our areas of mission to ensure that the truth is known and that victims have access to justice and the needed support.