A mission for women: abuse prevention within the family and in schools

On the occasion of the opening of the “Amoris Laetitia Family Year,” and in anticipation of the Easter Triduum, the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO) held three webinars (in English, Spanish, and French) to promote means of preventing the abuse of the most vulnerable members of the family: children and adolescents.

For this volume, Prof. Linda Ghisoni, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, wrote the preface, and took part in the presentation of the book with a greeting in which she renewed the commitment of the Holy See—and the commitment of this Dicastery in particular—to the prevention of abuse and to anti-abuse training.

In her presentation, Dr. Ghisoni recalled how the pandemic made it “even more difficult to accompany and protect the most vulnerable people. Access to education has been compromised for many children and young people living in poverty. Children, women, the disabled, and the homebound have experienced greater isolation than usual, and have often been exposed to more loneliness and violence.”

She also reflected on how this volume is being published at a very sensitive, but at the same time providential, moment. As part of the recently-inaugurated “Amoris Laetitia Family Year,” it is a practical step that the WUCWO has taken to show that the Church is on the side of families and is concretely committed, as Pope Francis says in the inauguration message, “to make the journey with them; to enter into homes with sensitivity and with love,” so as to tell families: “the Lord is close to you, we want to help you care for the gift you have received.”

Finally, Dr. Ghisoni emphasized that these meetings, which were held during Holy Week, “show the loving concern typical of women who, as I was able to write in the preface to the volumes, ‘amidst the silence of Holy Saturday, devoted themselves to preparing the precious oils, saved to anoint the body of the Lord pierced through with wounds—that body of Christ is the Church, and they anoint its wounds, which are still visible but yet made glorious by the Risen One’.”