National Child Protection Week — Message to the Chaplains
My dear brother priests, deacons, and pastoral associates,
As we come to National Child Protection Week, I want to take a moment to speak with you about something that is very important to me and very important to us as the Military Ordinariate.
As your new Bishop, I want to reaffirm our commitment to making sure that wherever we exercise our ministry, people are safe.
Of course, that means our chapels and places of worship and offices. But for us as military chaplains, it means much more than that.
It means our bases and establishments. It means our ships. It means being out in the field. It means when we’re on exercises or deployed on operations. And it certainly means when we’re serving overseas.
Wherever a chaplain is ministering, safeguarding has to be part of the way we think and the way we conduct ourselves.
We meet people in all sorts of circumstances. We encounter young people, families, people who are vulnerable, and people who may be going through very difficult moments in their lives. And they place a great deal of trust in us.
We have to honour that trust.
That means being sensible. It means exercising good judgement. It means maintaining appropriate boundaries and being conscious of the particular circumstances in which we are ministering.
And sometimes those circumstances are quite different from what we might experience in an ordinary parish. We’re working in close environments, we’re travelling together, we’re deployed for periods of time, and sometimes we’re working overseas in cultures and circumstances that are unfamiliar to us.
All of that calls for a little extra awareness and prudence.
We also need to look after ourselves—our own wellbeing, our own judgement and our own conduct. We don’t want to put ourselves, or anyone else, in situations where there could be a risk of harm, or where our behaviour could be misunderstood.
But I think it’s important that, in doing all of this, we don’t become fearful of people.
Safeguarding isn’t about putting up barriers between us and the people we serve.
Quite the opposite.
Our vocation is to be with people. To accompany them. To listen to them. To support them. To be there for them, particularly when life is difficult.
So, we need that balance — prudence and appropriate boundaries, certainly, but also warmth, compassion and genuine pastoral care.
And I want our people, especially children, young people and those who are vulnerable, to know that wherever they encounter one of our chaplains — whether that’s in a chapel, on a base, on a ship, in the field or overseas — they will be welcomed, they will be respected, and they will be safe.
Ultimately, safeguarding isn’t somebody else’s responsibility.
It isn’t just the Bishop’s responsibility. It isn’t just the responsibility of our safeguarding personnel.
It’s everyone’s responsibility.
So, during National Child Protection Week, I ask each of you to renew that commitment in your own ministry.
Be attentive. Be prudent. Look after one another. And, above all, make sure that the people entrusted to our pastoral care are treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
Let us make sure that wherever the Military Ordinariate ministers — wherever our people are serving, wherever our chaplains are deployed — we are a Church that is safe, welcoming and trustworthy.
Thank you for your ministry, thank you for the people you serve, and thank you for the care you give to them.
And may God bless you and bless all those entrusted to your pastoral care.
Fraternally,
+ Most Reverend Stuart Hall