On the first day (10 October 2023) Fr Alex Garces was guiding the group composed of quinquennial priests and lay brothers to get to know some technical and legal terms in dealing with Child Protection Policy.
He invited the participants to become familiar with the documents of the Church, recent documents from Pope Francis (mostly his Motu proprio documents), and updated and revised Book VI of the Canon Law with clarification of some terms found in these documents. There are twelve documents with a brief presentation from Fr. Garces decorated with some small and short stories that could make them understandable to the participants. For their part, there is also an allotted time for group discussion and sharing as well as for group presentations.
On the second day (11 October 2023) there are groups of rectors, in charge of the community, parish priests, and principals having their turn for this formative seminar. The same contents presented by Fr Garces are warmly welcomed by these elderly confreres. For some, it is an eye-opener experience as well as an opportunity to refresh their knowledge in dealing with canonical and legal matters.
In his four concluding remarks, Fr Garces called attention from everyone to work seriously on the protection of minors. Starting from recruitment and selection of candidates (using Ratio and knowing the family’s background), formative dimension, especially on human and psychological formation, personal aspects of religious life and spirituality (that each confrere must have maturity, integrity, honesty, and co-responsibility in dealing with the issue of protection of minors and lastly from the superior, he must have this sense of animation and governance. In this part, a superior is not only governing but also disciplines, called to make prevention, confrontation, and correction on some confreres when it’s needed.
TLS vice-province has submitted a protocol on Child Protection Policy to Rector Major and it has been approved. This formative seminar would be a great help in finalizing the protocol with some additional matters and soon to be distributed and implemented in the communities.
TLS Social Communication Office
