Church Redress Further Fails Abuse Survivors. Complainant In Pastoral Healing Process Receives Letter From Church Lawyer

The New Zealand Catholic Church’s National Safeguarding and Professional Standards Committee (NSPSC), responsible for the Church’s sexual abuse redress protocol—TEHOUHANGA RONGO / A PATH TO HEALING (APTH), together with the Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS) set up to coordinate responses to complaints under APTH, have been accused by survivors of foiling complaints, reports the survivors advocacy network SNAP.

Victims and survivors of clerical and religious sexual abuse who decided to reach out to the New Zealand Catholic Church for healing, say church investigations into their complaints are being obstructed by NSPSC and NOPS, as the principles established in APTH are still not being properly observed, and APTH procedures are still not being followed.

SNAP reports that one APTH complainant recently received a letter from a lawyer instructed by both NSPSC and NOPS threatening to “discontinue the inquiry into your complaints,” after the complainant questioned NOPS’s handling of the investigative process.

The complainant claimed, “investigators were prevented by NOPS from gathering the evidence and making the necessary inquiries.”

Two appeals to the group that oversees NSPSC and NOPS, the “Mixed Commission” comprised of New Zealand’s Catholic bishops and congregational leaders, have been made but have so far been ignored.

Despite the New Zealand Catholic Church’s public promises of “a compassionate and fair response to complainants,” survivors feel they are not being taken seriously, reports SNAP. “In fact, the survivors are being further harmed by the very process set up to offer them healing,” stated SNAP Aotearoa survivor support worker Barbara Taylor.

SNAP is concerned that while the two committees NSPSC and NOPS seem like separate entities, they are in fact made up of the same people. Yet NSPSC’s role, according to the Church’s published “Safeguarding Structure,” is to oversee the work of NOPS.

SNAP is also concerned that NOPS is still asking complainants to sign confidentiality clauses in order to have their complaints investigated.

SNAP hopes the much-anticipated Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s Final Report, due out this week, will further address these issues.

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