AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Protection of minors and vulnerable people: a challenge for the Church

Abidjan (Agenzia Fides) - "Protection of minors and vulnerable people in the Church in Ivory Coast" is the central theme of a training session organized by the Bishops' Conference of Ivory Coast in collaboration with the Center for the Protection of Minors and vulnerable people of ICMA, the Catholic Missionary Institute of Abidjan, which was held from 4 to 5 March 2021, at the diocesan center of Yamoussoukro.
This training session follows Pope Francis' February 2019 appeal to the National Bishops' Conferences to address the uncomfortable problem of child abuse in the Church.
Giving the reasons for the holding of this session, Fr. Emmanuel Wohi Nin, Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference of Ivory Coast, said that the issue of the abuse of minors and vulnerable people is a fundamental challenge that the Church must face both at auniversal and at a local level.
"It was normal for our Bishops' Conference to also look into the question and in this regard, the Bishops have therefore drawn up a protocol, a code of conduct concerning its cases of sexual abuse", he underlined.
According to Fr. Emmanuel Wohi Nin, "it is not only a question of sexual abuse but all forms of abuse, thus extending the definition to the abuses of the authorities on minors or vulnerable people".
Referring to these forms of abuse, Father Emmanuel Wohi Nin went so far as to extend them "even in homes, today in Ivory Coast those what are called servants, they are vulnerable people".
The formation meeting was attended by about thirty members of the diocesan reporting offices, made up of priests, men and women religious specializing in law, pastoral care, psychology. (S.S.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/3/2021)

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local churches

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