SÃO PAULO – Lux Mundi Center, an office established by the Conference of Religious of Brazil and by the Bishops’ Conference, recently promoted a cycle of conferences with Father Hans Zollner, a major international expert on safeguarding, as part of its effort to educate priests and members of religious groups on abuse prevention in Brazil.

Zollner visited the South American nation at the end of May and his classes, attended by hundreds of participants – both in person and on-line – highlighted the importance of transforming Catholic communities, parishes, and ecclesiastical movements into safe spaces for everybody, especially for children, teenagers and vulnerable adults.

A member of the Society of Jesus, Zollner heads the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome’s Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care, and has visited dozens and dozens of countries to train Church members on establishing adequate safeguard measures.

“The Conference of Religious of Brazil [CRB] is committed to protecting life, especially when it’s under threat or has vulnerabilities. We felt the need to promote that encounter in order to collaborate with the formation of the religious in Brazil,” Sister Eliane Cordeiro, CRB’s former director, told Crux.

Lux Mundi Center, created in 2020 with the mission of incentivizing and coordinating the creation of commissions of protection of minors and vulnerable people in the ecclesiastical structures of the Brazilian Church, was in charge of organizing Zollner’s visit to Brazil.

“It was a very important moment for us. At least 700 people attended his initial conference, and hundreds more took part in the workshop he offered,” Eliane De Carli, Lux Mundi’s director, told Crux.

After the national encounter, Zollner traveled to Curitiba, Paraná state, where he gave a lecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, headed by the Marist Brothers, with great attendance of community leaders as well.

“During those activities, we could notice that there are many people in the Brazilian Church committed to abuse prevention and interested in establishing safe communities,” De Carli said.

“I was invited by CRB and Lux Mundi to talk about safeguarding and the mission of the Church and of consecrated life. I was happy to talk to hundreds of superiors, people who work in that area and even a few diocesan priests,” Zollner told Crux.

According to Zollner, after visiting so many countries, it’s perceptible that all over the world the Church has done a lot to implement safeguarding measures, but there’s much work to do in many countries when it comes “to acknowledging the truth about the past and the crimes perpetrated against children and vulnerable adults” – and that’s is not different in Brazil.

“I wanted to convey the message that safeguarding is connected to a vision of a safer Church and a safer world, a vision that’s part of Christ’s mission for the Church and for consecrated life,” he said.

Members of religious groups, he added, try to follow Jesus’s example, and “He identified with the lesser ones, with the vulnerable ones, giving us the mission to work for the excluded as He did.”

Establishing a safe space involves listening to the abuse victims, Zollner said.

“Their voice and their experiences are indispensable when it comes to making more consistent efforts in terms of safeguarding,” he added.

De Carli said the encounter with Zollner showed to the Brazilian Church “our limits and how much we still have to advance in order to implement safe processes and safe relationships.”

Over the past five years since the creation of Lux Mundi, the center has been able to reach about half of the Brazilian congregations and dioceses with activities to raise awareness and train leaders on abuse prevention.

“Given that the Brazilian Church has a gigantic dimension, we can say that we have done a significant work in order to guide and incentivize clergy members and religious people in the right direction,” De Carli argued.

Working side by side with Church organizations as the Caritas offices, Lux Mundi has been able to attain even faraway Amazonian communities.

The center now plans to work with associations of lay Catholics and make progress in the dimension of welcoming abuse victims.

“In many congregations and dioceses, we still don’t have a structure to welcome and take care of victims and that is highly necessary. We’re still advancing in that direction,” she said.

In the opinion of Hans Zollner, a great number of people in the Brazilian Church are aware of the issues that have to be faced.

“And they’re willing to invest their time and their competences so that mission can be more fruitful and credible,” he said.