From 15th to 18th September 2025, we gathered at the Heinrich Pesch House in Ludwigshafen (Germany). This international conference, ‘Safeguarding: From Awareness to Action, Strengthening and Evaluating a Culture of Protection in JECSE Schools’, a joint initiative of ZIP and JECSE, took place both in person and online and brought together more than 50 educators and other relevant stakeholders engaged in safeguarding, child protection and the prevention of sexualised violence.
Safeguarding and child protection are essential components of the educational work of all Jesuit and companion schools within the Jesuit Global Network of Schools. As practices, norms and the legal environment differ from one jurisdiction to another, educators from across the European provinces met to share best practices and learn from each other. To achieve our goal of making Jesuit schools exemplary in their mission, it is imperative that we nurture all our children and young people in an environment that protects their well-being.
From awareness to action
The main topics covered at the conference included reflections on the Ignatian foundations of safeguarding, stressing that it is not just about technical policies and procedures; rather, it stems from our worldview, our anthropology and the mission of our schools. Participants were invited to consider new challenges relating to children’s cyber safety and artificial intelligence, and to discuss practical ways of addressing such issues in everyday school life. The goal was always set to the future. It was about discussing what we can do to improve, and not just about recounting the things we have failed to do.
The opening remarks and the first keynote address by Fr José Mesa SJ, Secretary for Education, set the tone. Promoting a culture of protection goes far beyond simply enforcing new rules and standards of procedure. If we are to call ourselves Ignatian, safeguarding must be synonymous with pedagogy – a pedagogy of the heart, learnt from the Spiritual Exercises – with cura personalis as a key tool, placing the student at the centre of all concerns.
Fr John Guiney SJ elaborated on these Ignatian roots of safeguarding, leading to the presentation of the Promotion of a Consistent Culture of Protection (PCCP), a project of the Society of Jesus, with Dr Sandra Racionero-Plaza. However, it is also important to consider what others are doing in different contexts. Ms Noeline Blackwell from the Children’s Rights Alliance offered us a ‘Human Rights Lens on Children’s Online Safety’, drawing on civil society’s advocacy experience in Ireland.
Through several workshops and plenary addresses, participants were then able to build on the experiences, best practices and achievements of their colleagues across the network. Discussion was not always easy – is there anything easy about the possibility of child abuse? Topics ranged from the role of teachers to the attitudes and behaviour of children’s peers and families, as well as the dangers of the virtually unknown. How can we apply these best practices to our day-to-day challenges? How can we best improve our school environment? How can we ensure that we are creating joyful and uplifting memories, shaping men and women into the future?
The long road here
The journey in the European region towards this conference began several years ago. The JECSE network came together for the first time in 2022, for a regional discussion on this topic. We gathered in the same place — Ludwigshafen — to talk about ‘Protecting Minors in Our Schools: Preventing and Responding to (Sexualised) Violence’. It was a pivotal moment for acknowledging the current situation, the challenges ahead, and our past mistakes, and for learning from them. The outcome of this first regional gathering of Jesuit schools around the topic of safeguarding was significant in that it sparked lively discussions and a strong desire for more practical training. This momentum led to the creation of a new chapter and a joint project between ZIP and JECSE: ‘Safeguarding – From Awareness to Action: Strengthening and Evaluating a Culture of Protection in JECSE Schools’. The project aims to provide safeguarding training for staff in our schools. As part of this initiative, we organised various online safeguarding training sessions and a discussion forum for school safeguarding coordinators. Several safeguarding tools were developed and local resources were collected and shared across the network.
Leave the door wide open
‘Promoting a culture of protection goes far beyond simply enforcing new rules and standards of procedure.’ Does it sound as if you’ve read it before? Over the course of these days, around 50 participants came to this very same conclusion time and time again.
Fr José Mesa SJ, put it bluntly: ‘it is very important to connect any efforts of safeguarding with our educational tradition so that people do not perceive it as an add-on but rather a condition and necessary framework for our education to happen. This will also help to integrate safeguarding within the larger framework of Jesuit Education and guarantees that it is not just a campaign for a few years to come. I learned a lot this week, especially from the enthusiasm of the participants. I’m glad to see that we have passed from just reacting to the scandals to really implementing a culture of prevention and safeguarding’.
The second global identifier of a Jesuit School is that we are ‘committed to creating a Safe and Healthy Environment for all’. That ‘educators and administrators in Jesuit schools create safe and healthy environments free of any form of abuse: sexual, physical, psychological, or emotional’ becomes more than a task, or another item in a long checklist. It means that ‘environments free from any form of abuse’ must be a key element of our own identity as Jesuit and Companion schools.
Another conclusion was reached during this week. It is obvious yet subtle, and for that reason it is sometimes forgotten or dismissed. To achieve a true culture of protection, we need support, shared experiences and learned lessons. We need each other. ‘This is the basic apostolic intuition of Ignatius of Loyola’, said Fr José Mesa SJ, ‘the Society of Jesus is not a federation of provinces, or institutions but an apostolic body with the same mission’.
It is not easy to come together for a week to discuss what is most painful to us and what we need to change or improve to prevent others from being hurt. However, it was also hope-filling, because we were reminded that there’s a well-known secret to shaping men and women for others: their well-being is our most important mission.