"Safe Environment" Programs Get Mixed Reviews

Assessing Parish Safety
Evidence for Abuse Prevention Programs Is Mixed
BY SUE ELLIN BROWDER
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

June 10-16, 2007 Issue | Posted 6/5/07 at 8:00 AM

WASHINGTON — On the surface, a new report sent to the U.S. bishops in April looks like a prelude to controversy.

Put out by a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committee, the new report said abuse-prevention programs, which dioceses have set up for children across the nation, are “a major accomplishment and one that must continually be maintained and reinforced.”

Further, the Safe Environment Work Group that produced the report concluded, “there is evidence [that] safe environment programs for children have a positive effect on children, are consistent with the science of child development and are in accord with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

This conclusion directly contradicts a 90-page Catholic Medical Association (CMA) critique of these programs released last fall. Titled To Protect and To Prevent, the critique argued that such programs were ineffective, potentially damaging to children and families, and “inconsistent with the Church’s teaching on the education of children in matters pertaining to formation in sexual morality.”

Noting that parents are the “primary educators and protectors of their children,” the CMA task force called for “current resources [to] be re-directed to programs that educate and support parents on how better to fulfill this vocation.”

In a Church battered and bruised by sex scandal, this latest debate could be divisive news — if this were the whole story.

Fortunately, it’s not. In the bishops’ new report, sociologist David Finkelhor states two points on which both sides agree: 1) The evidence for these programs is “far from conclusive,” and 2) “There is a desperate need for additional research on what works.”

Further, both Finkelhor and the Catholic Medical Association also agree on a third point: No one knows what effects these programs have on children younger than ten.

The Register article is continued here.

An "Executive Summary" (PDF) of the report by the Catholic Medical Association can be read here. Thankfully, though, :

...Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., the Catholic Medical Association’s episcopal adviser, is working with the association and others to create an adult-focused program that will strengthen families and give parents the support and understanding they need to teach their children themselves. In the works are plans for a six-hour video series, tentatively titled “Strong Families: Safer Children.”

At least this new program will be, shall we say, Catholic...