Priest Advisor is the first app in the world that will allow users to know and hence to avoid those priests involved in child sexual abuse and the unsafe dioceses.
It will also make possible to request legal and psychological support and report abuses that will be verified by the association Rete L’ABUSO.
In Italy, around 750,000* children are victims of clerical paedophilia.
There is no prevention policy by the Italian State, many abuses are handled in secret by the church and the paedophile priest is just moved to another parish.
Part of the ECA Network (Ending Clerical Abuse, Global Justice Project), Rete L’ABUSO, Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors’ Association, wants to provide a prevention tool and to denounce the absence of laws that allow justice and prevention of sexual abuses.
*Source: tiny.cc/fonte
Background
Priest Advisor is a prevention tool: the first app in the world that will allow users to know and to avoid those priests convicted of child sexual abuse.
It will be also possible to request legal and psychological support and report abuses that will be verified by the association.
“Even though the Vatican has opened the archives, at the legislative level Italy still has a lot to do. For example, the law foresees that for an up to 14 years old victim the Judicial Authority can initiate an independent proceeding.
Nevertheless, when it is a third-party reporting the abuse (a bishop, the same Rete L’ABUSO or another association), unless they are Public Officials, the Judicial Authority does not have the obligation, but only the possibility to intervene.
In my personal experience, this rarely happens.
After the age of 14 years old, the partisan lawsuit is also needed.
And this is the main Italian legal gap: it does not consider the age of the victims and the inability of a child to understand that he has suffered a crime and to report it”, says Francesco Zanardi, president of Rete L’Abuso, “we hope to collect the 12,800 euros needed to realize Priest Advisor to provide a free prevention tool and to denounce the absence of laws that allow justice and prevention of clergy sexual abuses”.
Where does your contribution go
The money will be completely used to cover the costs of building the app (website, graphics, development, publishing on Android and Apple app stores, legal advice).
Impact
With this mobile app we want to raise yet another alarm about a problem that is still far from being solved. While we await a legislative framework that will really protect the victims, we think that knowledge can help us to prevent a recurrence of certain crimes and keep the spotlight on the legislative vacuum. In addition, the app will be an additional tool to ask for help for victims who will always find legal and psychological support in Rete L’ABUSO.
Contacts:
portavoce@retelabuso.org
