By John Guiney, SJ, and Sandra Racionero-Plaza | Promotion of a Consistent Culture of Protection Project

The Promotion of a Consistent Culture of Protection (PCCP) team, Fr John Guiney and Dr Sandra Racionero-Plaza, participated in a closed-door workshop, “Building Communities that Safeguard Dignity” organized by Tutela Minorum (TM), the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and which took place in Rome at Palazzo Maffei Marescotti, 17-19 November 2025. This event was not conceived as a large conference, but as a strategic workshop. It brought together 40 religious congregations and conferences that are already contributing – or are discerning their participation – in the Annual Report of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The aim was to share experiences, learn from concrete practices, and strengthen safeguarding through formation and accountability.

Looking to the future, the hope was that this workshop is a first step towards the participation of the Society of Jesus in the TM Annual Report process, given in TM’s words “the richness of experience and innovation that PCCP bring in the field of safeguarding”.

PCCP were honoured to contribute to the opening session of Day 2, Tuesday 18 November dedicated to: “Ignatian spirituality and Data for Safeguarding: Using Ignatian Spirituality and data for reporting, formation, and prevention”. PCCP shared how Ignatian spirituality linked to the science of safeguarding are integral to effective safeguarding in different contexts and cultures, showing evidence of impact on the ongoing PCCP training and formation programme in progress in Jesuit schools around the globe. This programme joins those two dimensions, Ignatian Spirituality and science, complementing other training initiatives in place in many Provinces and Networks.

PCCP participation was a rich experience of exchange and meeting of religious superiors and safeguarding personnel from around the globe. How the vocabulary of safeguarding is shared by so many religious congregations and how community approaches are now essential to effective prevention was a consoling learning for PCCP. Dialogue with diverse contexts and cultures was also highlighted as essential to framing content and continuity of training and formation. The 4 Cs of safeguarding: Context, Culture, Community and Continuity are now a key approach for safeguarding in the Catholic Church across the globe, an approach which is so closely related to a synodal way of doing safeguarding. The PCCP approach has been and is very aligned with this way of proceeding.

Places which still require further attention and work include the essential work of walking with victims/survivors, and learning how to do effective reparation in dialogue with them. ‘Victims first’ needs to be emphasized over and over again. At the same time, changes in structures and institutions need to happen to gain in better accountability, transparency and quicker response to cases.

At PCCP we look forward to continuing our collaboration with Tutela Minorum, learning from the work of many religious congregations and dioceses around the globe, and humbly serving the Pontifical Commission in their essential work for a safer Church for all. After the participation in the workshop, we can see that there are good reasons for Hope.

[All photos: © Marco Cordone - Tutela Minorum]

Watch here a video of Fr Guiney recorded by Tutela Minorum during the workshop: