QR code coming for priests: “It will help prevent abuse”

Around 17,000 clergy, including deacons, priests and bishops, will have a digital ID card with a QR code printed on it by the end of the year. Thanks to this code, the faithful will be able to know, for example, the “registration” of a priest, that is, whether he is subject to restrictions when performing his duties. This is the initiative launched in France by the Transalpine Bishops’ Conference to respond to demands for greater transparency in the wake of the pedophilia scandals that shook the country.

At the end of 2021, an independent report sponsored by the same Conference estimated that around 330,000 children were abused by deacons, priests and bishops in France between 1950 and 2020. The digital card was born right after this report. . In practice, explains Avvenire, “it’s a kind of modernized digital version of the traditional paper-based reputation: a document issued by the bishops or superiors of one sect (also used in different ways in Italy) to prove the faculty of a blessed sect. perform pastoral functions. Thecelet is already in demand, for example, by the rectors of sanctuaries and cathedrals, or on the occasion of other faith events such as junior gatherings”. But the paper version has several disadvantages, from not being updated to being a forgery.

The digital card must overcome these obstacles. The QR code will allow access to a kind of traffic light: if the green color appears, it means that there are no restrictions for the person in question on the performance of liturgical duties and pastoral accompaniment. Instead, the color orange will indicate that there are certain obstacles against the cardholder, “not necessarily linked to disciplinary sanctions, as with certain orders that the priest is not authorized to confess in the first year of service.” Avvenire always explains. The color red, on the other hand, refers to the prohibition of celebration and confession, especially in the presence of pending disciplinary situations or convictions: this is the case of priests who have been found guilty of abuse.

According to the bishops, this card will make the Church “Safer”. But associations of pedophilia victims disagree. “I don’t see how a believer has this reflex and checks the pedigree of the priest in question,” says François Deavaux, a longtime activist against abuse in the Church. Olivier Savignac, co-founder of the ‘Parler et revivre’ NGO, adds: “There are codes for colors, but in the end we don’t know what’s behind them.” especially in the case of the United States, where there is an episcopal and publicly consultable list of abusers and aggressors. This is not the case in France”.

continue reading today

Source: Today IT

\