By Rita Joseph

New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has released a set of guidelines to deal with sexual harassment in Church-managed institutions.

The “CBCI Guidelines to Deal with Sexual Harassment at Workplace,” is formulated to create a safe, healthy and loving environment where employees of Church institutions can work without the fear of prejudice, bias and sexual harassment, said Bishop Jacob Barnabas of Gurgaon, chairperson CBCI Council for Women.

The Syro-Malankara prelate said this while introducing the document the women’s council prepared at a press conference at the CBCI headquarters in New Delhi on September 14.

Though largely based on the national law — Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 — the guidelines are “much broader and unique” as they are gender-inclusive. The Church wants to provide protection not only to its women folk but also men and transgenders, the bishop said.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, CBCI secretary general, released the document in the presence of Bishop Barnabas, Archbishops Anil J Couto of Delhi and Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of Faridabad.

Also present were CBCI deputy secretary general Monsignor Joseph Chinnayyan, Destitute Sister Talisha Nadukudiyil, national secretary, CBCI Council for Women, and Presentation Sister Sneha Gill, member of the Minority Commission of the Delhi government.

Bishop Barnabas said the bishops’ conference advocates zero tolerance toward acts of sexual violence and has requested the heads of Catholic institutions to implement the document with “as the will of the Lord Almighty and as coming from the ethos of the Holy Bible.”

The document provides “‎the process of handling cases of sexual harassment, if and when they occur and ‎also tries to safeguard people from false allegations. It also creates a ‎mechanism for prevention of any such form of harassment.”

Regarding the delay in bringing out the document, Bishop Barnabas said that it was a tedious process. “We consulted top level legal officials, including judges and senior advocates. Some of them were actively involved. High-level officials who were involved gave us the spirit to go ahead in making it gender inclusive. The gender inclusiveness took a lot of time as one had to be very careful in including this aspect.”

Will there be any monitoring committee to follow the implementation?

“We will follow it up. But there will be no separate committee as such. The Council (Women’s) is there and there is the CBCI standing committee which meets twice a year. So it will be followed up,” the prelate added.

On allegations from a forum of progressive nuns about “rampant” clergy sex abuse against nuns, Archbishop Bharanikulangara said the Church will strict deal with sexual harassment by any person, bishop, priest, nun or lay person. Zero tolerance means nobody would be exempt, however, high and mighty.

What if the offender is a bishop?

The Church has a system to deal with such a situation. There is the nuncio or the presidents of the self-governing Churches that one can to deal with the matter. One can even approach the Doctrine of Faith office in Rome, explained Bishop Mascarenhas.

Archbishop Bharanikulangara noted a renewed awareness of the dignity of every human all over the universal Church under Pope Francis’ leadership.

“We we want to give testimony to that principal everywhere. What has happened in the past is past. Now we want to improve the situation and guarantee justice for all,” the Syro-Malabar prelate explained.

The policy is being implemented following a papal decree that demanded bishops’ conferences around the world come up with their own guidelines to deal with deviant sexual behaviour in Church-run institutions, Archbishop Bharanikulangara explained.

Violetta Scolt, president Council of Catholic Women Archdiocese of Delhi, says developing a policy is one thing; sticking to it is another. “All depends on how seriously it is implemented. The policy should be implemented in letter and spirit as sexual abuse within the Church is incompatible with Biblical teachings of justice,” she said.

Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a core team member of the CBCI council for women, is happy that the guidelines will mandate setting up structures to address sexual abuse. “Now if an incident takes place people will know where to go and whom to approach.

“If priests are involved there’s always the fear that the victim will be blamed because the clergy is held in such high esteem, sometimes treated like God. Having a policy is one way of telling victims that they have a right to ask for justice and support even when a priest is an offender. It shows they care. Victims will be supported and women activists will now have a handle to work with.”

Sister Gill noted that women are the workforce behind the church and somewhere a quasi-judicial body needed to be created. “No hiding it under the carpet anymore. The zero-tolerance against sex-related crimes will make every women in the Church feel honoured. She will get a space to speak out and dignity at workplace. Let us come out not as vulnerable but courageous daughters,” she added.

The 28-page document, which took two years in the making, opens with a message from Cardinal Cleemis while Barnabas has written the foreword.

It gives the scope of the guidelines, defines what pertains sexual harassment, responsibility of the institutions, professional ethos, composition of internal complaints committee etc. The document also has appendixed a code of protective behaviour for the members of the Catholic institutions.