STA, 21 May 2019 - The Slovenian Bishops' Conference has expressed regret after a Catholic civil initiative publicly named priests suspected of child abuse. But the bishops said they were willing to cooperate with civil initiatives and state authorities providing assistance to victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The bishops and other church representatives would like to receive the victims and their families and support them during the process of dealing with the consequences of sexual abuse, the Bishops' Conference said in a press release on Tuesday.
"The Conference's group of experts designed to handle sexual abuse cases provides legal help and psychological support to the victims as well as suggests measures to bishops and church officials in individual cases," reads the release.
The expert group is the Catholic Church's authority tackling this issue, thus it is tasked with cooperation with civil initiatives and state authorities fighting child sexual abuse.
The Bishops' Conference said that the Church authorities had been handling sexual abuse cases on their own as well, while supporting police in investigation procedures.
It pointed out that the Church's legal procedures were dependent on police work since the Church itself did not have its own forensics or investigators.
The Catholic Church thus relies on state investigative authorities' findings including in establishing the truth in criminal cases against sexual integrity, particularly when offences were allegedly carried out years or decades ago.
The conference's release expressed regret over some individuals and civil initiatives publicly revealing the names of alleged abusers without those suspects being proven guilty.
"The Bishops' Conference believes that one needs to preserve not just the dignity of victims but also of suspected offenders, protecting their good name from getting sullied," said the release.
Related: Sex Abuse Initiative Files Complaints Against Seven Priests
The civil initiative Dovolj.je (It's Enough) said on Monday that three months after being launched, it had received sexual abuse reports about 15 priests who were named and two anonymous ones which did not mention accused priests by name.
At its press conference, the initiative revealed a few names of alleged perpetrators, with one of the victims revealing the name of her alleged molester.
