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On March 16th, addressing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Pope Leo XIV encourages their mission to ensure abuse is prevented in the Church, insisting that such responsibility must be concretely confronted, and not delegated, to build a "culture of care."

Twenty years ago, Sister Helene Hayes addressed a group of sisters in Ireland about the worldwide problem of human trafficking. The American Good Shepherd sister showed the sisters a video about child sex slavery — “Fields of Mudan” — focused on the experiences of a 5-year-old girl and left them stunned.

At least 1.2 million youngsters have disclosed having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year, according to a study across 11 countries conducted by the UN agency, INTERPOL and the ECPAT global network working to end the sexual exploitation of children worldwide. In some countries, this represents one in 25 children or the equivalent of one child in a typical classroom, the study found. Full article Listen to Cosmas Zavazava, the Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau explaining UN News’s Conor Lennon from UN News about the many threats children face, and how UN is working with the tech companies to boost protection.

No matter what ministry or program in which you may serve—you are uniquely positioned to be a sanctuary of safety. Safe adults are advocates, which means that we advocate for youth, and with youth for their safety and wellbeing. As a safe adult, you have tremendous power to make a profound difference for children—not only by recognizing and responding to unsafe situations, but also by teaching children about their rights to safety and creating environments where they can speak up and get help. To be clear, it is our responsibility as adults to create safe environments for the children in our care, and there are also things we can teach to children to help them to be safer.

Consider a situation in which a child abuser, named “Jerry,” who, as part of the grooming process, manipulates a 14-year-old girl named "Sarah,” to create and then text him sexually explicit images of herself. Later, when Sarah refuses to meet him for sex, Jerry threatens her and retaliates by deliberately posting her intimate images on various social media platforms and websites. In many situations, this scheme ultimately can result in the child capitulating and meeting with the adult in person, or providing monetary payment to prevent additional retaliation. In some situations, the resulting stress and shame of the retaliation culminates in the child taking his or her own life. However, there are actions that can be taken to address this type of Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII) abuse for victims like Sarah, that can remove these images and protect her before further harm can occur.

Pope Leo appoints Thibault Verny, Archbishop of Chambéry and Bishop of Maurienne and Tarentaise to succeed Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley as the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. In France, Archbishop Verny was responsible for the fight against child abuse within the Episcopal Conference.

Pope Leo XIV encounters the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Vatican.

Helping children and youth disclose when they have experienced abuse or other harm is paramount within the ministry. This article will address some challenging statistical realities involving survivors of abuse and what happens when safe adults do not intervene. What happens to children during and after being abused should never be reduced to statistics or research. However, what is outlined here does provide key elements about the necessity of our involvement and the resilience of survivors that should animate us and give us great hope.

Each year during the month of May, the Administration for Community Living announces the theme for Older Americans Month. The theme for 2025 is “Flip the Script on Aging” which focuses on transforming how society perceives, talks about, and approaches aging. It encourages individuals and communities to challenge stereotypes and dispel misconceptions. Adult Protective Services joins the Administration for Community Living, Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and several local senior network agencies across the state to highlight Older Americans Month (OAM). An estimated 5.9 million people 60 or older live in Texas, according to the Texas Demographic Center. As this number increases, so does the need for older adults to form meaningful relationships and social connections. Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation reminding Texans of the responsibility to care for older adults.

Adults have tremendous power when it comes to protecting children. Of course, we have surely heard of cases where adults have lifted vehicles to protect children or seemed to have inhuman speed to move children out of the path of a disaster. But then there are the less obvious superhero qualities... For example, when adults work together as a community, studies show that we have the superpower of being able to collectively prevent abuse from happening in the first place. But our superpowers shine more brilliantly when we recognize that we individually have great power in positively influencing a child's ability to disclose abuse. This gives us opportunities to stop abuse and influence a child's rate and pace of healing and resilience. What we do as safe adults can actually change the trajectory of a child's wellbeing over their entire lifetime.