PCCP
began designing these programs in January 2024, starting with pre-secondary and
secondary education. The approach used – and still in place – combines, on the
one hand, co-designing with a diverse range of key stakeholders in each
apostolic area within each Jesuit Conference and network, and on the other
hand, the integration of scientific research in the field (prevention of and
response to abuse) with Ignatian spirituality. This Ignatian PCCP formation
program has already been piloted in the six Jesuit Conferences and in Fe y AlegrÃa, involving around 850
participants. Only Course 1 (of a total of three) has been implemented so far,
and the quantitative and qualitative data collected show very positive impacts,
including changes in cognition, motivation, and, most importantly, in social
relationships.
The co-designing of Courses 2 and 3 is already underway, and
Course 2 – focused on effective interventions, once again grounded in both
scientific evidence and Ignatian spirituality – will be launched in the coming
months. At the same time, PCCP is developing a formation program for Jesuits in
safeguarding, within a broader framework: promoting a culture of protection
based on high-quality human relationships in all communities and institutions.
This program proposes a universal curriculum covering key topics at each stage
of formation, from pre-novitiate to Tertianship. By the end of 2026, the
program for the novitiate stage will be completed.
The underlying
principle of PCCP and its formation programs is that policies and protocols
will always be necessary and must be regularly updated to respond to a changing
reality, both socially and within each institution. However, from its inception,
PCCP has assumed that policies and protocols alone do not create a new
relational culture capable of preventing all forms of abuse. Cultural change
requires processes that engage the entire community and form all members of an
institution or group in ways of relating that are, in themselves, preventive of
different types of abuse. This involves people in a wide variety of roles and
responsibilities.
