In a written message on Tuesday to the Vatican’s commission for the protection of minors from sexual abuse, Pope Francis urged the group to continue to “keep watch while the world sleeps,” and to care for victims and survivors by listening “with the ear of the heart” to their experiences.

“Abuse prevention,” he said, “is not a blanket to be spread over emergencies but one of the foundations on which to build communities faithful to the Gospel.”

Pope Francis’ message was sent to participants in the March 24–28 plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), which he established in 2014.

With the reform of the Roman Curia in 2022, the commission — whose mission is to help local Churches around the world to safeguard minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse — became part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The PCPM released its first annual report on Church policies and procedures for safeguarding in 2024.

During its 10 years of work, the pontifical commission has “enabled a safety network to grow within the Church,” the pope said. He also encouraged the group to “keep going!”

“Continue to be sentinels that keep watch while the world sleeps. May the Holy Spirit, teacher of living memory, preserve us from the temptation to file away grief instead of healing it,” he said.

Relating the PCPM’s service to “oxygen” for the local Churches and religious communities, Francis asked the group to increase its joint work with the departments of the Roman Curia and to build alliances with civil authorities, experts, and associations outside of the Catholic Church.

He also requested that they “offer hospitality and care for the wounds of the soul to victims and survivors, in the style of the good Samaritan. To listen with the ear of the heart, so that every testimony finds not registers to be compiled but the depths of mercy from which to be reborn.”

This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.

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