Annex A -
Glossary
The following definitions apply in
this report.
1994 Guidelines - a working party report
Child Abuse: Pastoral and Procedural Guidelines, produced
for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
in 1994, and subsequently implemented in dioceses.
Abuse of children - the ill-treatment
and/or exploitation of a child or young person whether
through neglect or through physical, emotional or sexual
molestation.
ACPC - see Area Child Protection Committee.
Administrative leave - the procedure
used by many professions and recommended in the 1994 Guidelines
whereby a priest accused of abuse steps aside, without
any implication of guilt, from his responsibilities including
any parish commitment while the investigation takes place.
Allegation - the reporting of a disclosure
of or suspicion about abuse.
Area Child Protection Committee - a
multi-agency statutory body that exists in each part of
the country to co-ordinate the agency responses to child
protection issues.
Canon law - the law of the Church.
Child/children - includes young people
up to the age of eighteen.
Church - the Catholic Church in England
and Wales.
Clergy - bishops, priests and deacons.
CPC - Child Protection Co-ordinator.
This is a person (also known as the 'bishop's delegate'
in the 1994 Guidelines) appointed in each diocese by the
bishop to take the lead for the Church in responding to
allegations and also to co-ordinate the development of
child protection policies, and in each religious order
by the religious superior for the same purpose.
CPMT - Child Protection Management Team
(see para 3.5.4ff). This is a body to be set up in each
diocese, which includes childcare professionals, a lawyer
and other experts. Its function is to deal effectively
with any reports or incidents and to liaise with the statutory
agencies.
CRB - Criminal Records Bureau. A new
body established by statute due to become operational
in 2001, to provide police information on past convictions
or suspicions.
Deanery - a group of parishes in the
same geographical area within a diocese.
DfES - the Department for Education
and Skills.
Diaconate - the sacred office of men
who have received the sacrament of ordination and assist
bishops and priests in the threefold service of the liturgy,
preaching the gospel and works of charity. See below for
permanent deacon.
Diocese - normally a geographical area
where the local Catholic community is grouped together
under a bishop. The Catholic Church in England and Wales
is divided into 22 dioceses. Each diocesan bishop exercises
his authority autonomously though not in a totally independent
manner. He must act in accordance with the norms of canon
law, and in communion with the world-wide college of bishops
and with its head, the Pope. In the United Kingdom there
is also the Bishopric of the Forces which is not territorial
and covers those serving in the armed forces.
Disclosure - a situation where a specific
allegation of abuse is made against a named individual.
Formation - the process of educating
and spiritually developing those training for the priesthood
or religious life.
Holy See - the Pope himself and/or the
various officials and bodies of the Church's central administration
at Vatican City which act in the name and by authority
of the Pope.
Laicisation - the consequence of a priest
either successfully applying to be relieved from their
priestly obligations, or the result of their dismissal
from the clerical state by due process.
NCPU - National Child Protection Unit.
Ordination - the sacramental act by
which a person becomes a deacon, priest, or bishop.
Papal Nuncio - the ambassador of the
Holy See to the Court of St James, and a key link between
the bishops of England and Wales and the Vatican's Secretariat
of State.
Paramountcy Principle - the principle
that in any proceedings involving children the welfare
of the child must be the paramount consideration.
PCPR - Parish Child Protection Representative
(see paras 3.2.3-4).
Permanent deacon - a man, married or
unmarried, who has been ordained to the diaconate (see
above) without a view to being subsequently ordained to
the priesthood.
Religious order - a religious community,
either male or female, which has its own specific rule
and constitutions. In general the diocesan bishop has
no capacity to intervene in their internal affairs (see
paragraph 3.1.11).
Religious superior - the person in charge
of a specific community of a religious order.
Risk assessment - the process of judging
whether a person or situation presents a degree of risk
to a child or children (see paragraphs 2.10.10 and 3.5.14).
Seminary - the college where students
for ordination are trained.
Statutory agencies - police, social
services, and other agencies set up by statute.
Superior - see religious superior.
Survivor - see victim.
Suspension - for lay people, this is
the equivalent of administrative leave; for priests and
deacons this is the penalty available under the canon
law of the Church which debars a priest from exercising
his priestly ministry for a limited period (see paragraph
3.5.33).
Suspicion - a situation where there
is no disclosure but there is a concern that abuse may
have taken place.
Victim - a person who has suffered abuse
at any time in the past (adults who were victims of abuse
as children often describe themselves as 'survivors' rather
than 'victims'.)
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