Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults
The mission entrusted by the Church to the Augustinian Recollects is carried out mainly in parishes, educational centers, mission areas and social projects. In all these ministries, every day we share life and mission with thousands of people who place their trust in us to accompany them in the experience of faith and the celebration of the sacraments, to collaborate in the education of their children, to nourish themselves with Augustinian tradition and spirituality or to contribute to the construction of a more just world for all. We Augustinian Recollects want to guarantee that all these spaces of human relationships and places of coexistence are true environments where the development of the person is promoted in an integral way and where the culture of good treatment is cultivated.
The Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults of the Order of Augustinian Recollects is an organism dependent on the Prior General, which has the following objectives:
- Promote a culture of prevention, coordinating the plans and efforts that, in each province and at the local level, are being carried out.
- Attend to cases of abuse of minors that have been reported to the Commission, or that have occurred within the Order of Augustinian Recollects, either by religious or by hired or volunteer personnel.
- To watch over cases of abuse of vulnerable persons (Vos estis lux mundi, 1§2) committed by religious.
- Propose concrete measures to promote the prevention of abuse and the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, among others: a) ensure the care of victims and affected persons (Vos estis lux mundi, 5.); b) accompanying the accused; c) to promote the initial and ongoing formation of religious, contracted personnel and other pastoral agents; d) to guide the religious in the function of government; e) to ensure the existence of spaces and areas for the prevention and protection of all in our communities and ministries.
- Advise the Prior General and major superiors in cases that may arise in the area of protection of minors and vulnerable adults.
- To verify with timely and effective means the fulfillment of the protocols and regulations that, in matters of protection of minors and vulnerable adults, are determined in the Order of Augustinian Recollects.
The creation of this Commission represents a renewed commitment of the Order against all types of abuse of minors and vulnerable people, and the creation of safe environments in all the places where we are and in the apostolic works we serve. With this Commission, the Order joins the Church’s efforts to promote prevention, transparency and determination in the treatment of sexual crimes against minors and vulnerable persons.
Since 2015, the Order of Augustinian Recollects has had a Protocol for the Protection and Prevention of Children and Adolescents that is mandatory throughout the Order. This Protocol complements, without replacing them, all the norms of the Code of Canon Law (CDC), those of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCIO), those of the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela in its ordained text of May 21, 2010 (SST 2010) , the reforms introduced by the Motu Proprio As a Loving Mother (CUMA) , Vos Estis Lux Mundi (VELM), and the rescripts ex audiencia of December 3 and 6, 2019 . The procedures indicated therein are imperative and are not optional, so they must be followed by all religious. Likewise, some procedural clarifications indicated in the Vademecum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the successive canonical updates were incorporated into this Protocol.
Along with the canonical protocol, in recent years steps have continued to be taken to create safe spaces in all communities and apostolic works of the Order. As a result of this effort, Guidelines for the prevention and protection of minors and vulnerable adults in ministerial and missionary ministry, in educational centers, in formative environments and in vocation ministry have emerged.
The Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults offers the e-mail box [email protected] to make inquiries or report possible cases of abuse in the context of the Order.
Members of the Commission
Antonio Carrón OAR (Italy). Chairman
Gustavo Camarena OAR (Mexico). Secretary
Daniel Medina OAR (Argentina)
Miguel Miró OAR (Mexico)
Leander Barrot OAR (Philippines)
Freddy H. Daza OAR (Italy)
Daniel Portillo (Italy)
Carmen Montejo (Spain)
Consult the document Prevention and Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults in the Order of Augustinian Recollects.