The Gregorian University hosted the 2025 International Safeguarding Conference.
There were more than 250 participants from all continents, from Canada to Papua Nieuw-Guinea, from Australia to Ukraine, from Peru to South Africa. This occasionally caused difficulties in understanding the English language due to the different ways of pronouncing words.
There were women and man religious, priests, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and survivors!
Some prominent attendees included Sr. Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Sr. Pat Murray, former Executive Secretary of the UISG and her successor, Sister Roxanne Schares; Sr. Abby Avelino, leader of Talitha Kum, the branch of the UISG that combats human trafficking; and, of course, Fr. Hans Zollner, the director of the Anthropology Department at the Gregorian University, who organised this conference, and many other big names.
The theme was: ‘Women of Faith, Women of Strength: A safeguarding Conference’.
After the opening, we heard Sr. Mary Lembo speak about the beatification of 15 sisters of the Congregation of St. Catherine of Alexandria, martyred in 1945 in Poland.
After a very extensive welcome reception, everyone went home to return the following day, on the Wednesday 18 June, to hear (and speak) about the situation in Ukraine, the work of Talitha Kum and migration from a Nigerian perspective.
Twice a day, we were divided into groups, each time with the same three questions:
1. What struck you most about what you heard?
2. What struck you most about the answers given here in the group? And
3. Formulate a question (and a second one, just to be sure) that you would like to ask the speakers later.
In the afternoon, we followed the same procedure with the themes of Safeguarding by women: support for survivors.
On Thursday 19 June, a number of concrete situations were presented, including violence against female religious and adult women. In the afternoon, a panel discussed “women and men – a shared responsibility for safeguarding”.
At the end of the afternoon, Sr. Pat and Fr. Salvatore Cernuzio closed the conference, after which we enjoyed a closing dinner together.
On 20 June, there was an academic day with a large number of practical introductions and discussions. There were also a few questions from the audience that had arisen during the conference.
All in all, it was a very informative and inspiring conference, during which many friendships were formed.
Tired but very satisfied, we then made our way home.