On the occasion of the 9th Meeting of Offices for the Protection of Minors held in Madrid, the Safeguarding teams of the Claretian Provinces of Santiago, Sanctus Paulus, and Fátima held their second interprovincial meeting on Friday 18th September.
The meeting provided an opportunity to share the main challenges and concerns currently facing the three Provinces. Key among these was the need to keep moving from a culture centered on protocols towards increasingly simple, practical, and accessible approaches—reinforcing best practices and offering clear criteria to support those engaged in educational, pastoral, and evangelising work.
The gathering also allowed for dialogue on the new organizational structure of Claretian schools and the role Safeguarding should play in this process. Beyond the specific characteristics of each territory, all three Provinces share a common commitment to the care of persons, common benchmarks, and numerous challenges where advancing together can be particularly enriching.
Grounded in this conviction, the teams considered creating a shared collaborative space to exchange experiences, materials, criteria, and resources that can subsequently be adapted to each Province’s local reality.
Rather than opening numerous lines of work, the intention is to start with concrete, firm steps. To this end, it was agreed to keep defining the expectations for this shared space, to present these reflections to the respective Major Superiors, and to continue the dialogue in an upcoming online meeting.
The atmosphere of the meeting confirmed the value of continuing along this journey together, learning from the experience of each Province, and placing this shared work at the service of an increasingly robust Claretian culture of care, prevention, and Safeguarding.
