First Nolan Report

Glossary

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.

Administrative leave - the procedure used by many professions and recommended in the 1994 Guidelines whereby a priest accused of abuse agrees, without any implication of guilt, to step aside 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 - multi-agency statutory bodies that exist in each part of the country to co-ordinate the agency responses to child protection issues.

Canon law - the law of the Church.

Church - the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Clergy - 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 for the diocese.

CPMT - Child Protection Management Team (see para 4.4ff). 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 improve access to criminal records and other information held by the police and Government Departments.

Diocese - 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.

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.

Laicisation - the dismissal of a priest from the clerical state.

Ordination - the sacramental act by which a person becomes a deacon, priest, or bishop.

Papal Nuncio - the ambassador of the Holy See to the UK Government, and the 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.

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 2.10).

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.

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.

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 4.23).

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".)