Child insecurity: A case for Roman Catholic parenting Lessons

Abstract

Given the clergy children sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, its justice and peace policy focuses on victim-child and offender-adult prosecution system and not a children’s wellbeing and development—parenting system. The latter being fundamental to children—Catholic justice and peace tradition for the worldwide Church. Using an analytical research approach, this article finds that worldwide, over 120 million girls are sexually abused; 90% by family members, boyfriends/husbands, or known persons. In fact, child neglect and violence drive children into crimes such that between 2005 and 2020 over 93,000 children were recruited into armed conflict. Hence, I propose a policy for enhancing children’s security, wellbeing and development that minimises child abuse and neglect in the Church: A Behavioural Parent Training Lessons (BPTLs). A policy that transforms parenting from a private and informal activity into a semi-public and semiprofessional one. This change will ensure that there are less children as footsoldiers for crimes in the world.