Vysk. Poniškaitis apie prievartos atvejus Bažnyčioje: nusikaltimas yra nusikaltimas visur

March 26, 2026·25 min·2 clips

Poland's bishops are creating an independent commission to investigate child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

1. Lithuanian public radio hosts a panel on whether Lithuania should follow Poland's Catholic Bishops' Conference in establishing an independent commission to investigate child sexual abuse in the church. 2. The three guests are Gabrielė Gailiūtė-Bernotenė from the Catholic lay initiative Svarbus Reikalas, Bishop Arūnas Poniškaitis as the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference national delegate for minors' protection, and Milita Žičkutė-Lindžienė as general secretary of Caritas Lithuania. 3. The central question is whether an independent commission is the right mechanism for Lithuania, and whether genuine independence is achievable within a church-controlled structure. 4. Bishop Poniškaitis says Lithuania monitors developments in Poland, maintains contact with Polish counterparts, and will evaluate whether a similar commission could work in the Lithuanian context. 5. Gailiūtė-Bernotenė uses a business audit analogy: if bishops want genuine transparency, they invite auditors freely; if they want to conceal things from their own shareholders, every step of the audit becomes an argument over methodology and auditor suitability. 6. She concludes that the final audit report will make the bishops' true intentions visible — a commission designed to protect reputation will be easy to methodologically discredit. 7. Bishop Poniškaitis states that sexual abuse of a minor is a criminal act under Lithuanian law, and anyone who learns of it is legally required to report to the child protection service or law enforcement. 8. He explains that the church's own investigation process cannot run parallel to a law enforcement investigation, so the church waits until the legal process concludes before taking internal action. 9. The Vilnius archdiocese has run approximately 30 training sessions in the past 18 months, reaching over 600 people — the majority lay workers in Catholic schools, camps, and parishes — on how to recognise and respond to abuse without re-traumatising the child. 10. Žičkutė-Lindžienė argues that across Lithuanian society, not just the church, far too few people who experience sexual abuse ever come forward, and Caritas and other organisations are still working to expand safe and accessible reporting pathways. 11. Gailiūtė-Bernotenė pushes back on the positive framing, saying it is easier to discuss prevention and training than to acknowledge that abuse victims who reported to bishops were sometimes not believed or not properly supported. 12. She specifically names the practice of quietly transferring priests suspected of abuse to other parishes rather than treating the conduct as a criminal matter or providing therapeutic intervention. 13. The Svarbus Reikalas questionnaire at svarbus-reikalas.lt has received about 30 responses over roughly one year, including at least two serious cases involving physical and sexual violence, and cases where survivors reported to a bishop and received no adequate response. 14. Caller Antanas from Telšiai argues that mandatory celibacy is the root cause of priest abuse and that the problem cannot be solved without changing that rule. 15. Bishop Poniškaitis declines to debate celibacy, calling it a separate topic, but cites a statistic that among celibate men generally the rate of sexual abuse can reach 50 percent, whereas among priests the documented rate is 0.5 to 7 percent — arguing the two topics are distinct. 16. Žičkutė-Lindžienė says Lithuania as a society still struggles to believe and acknowledge sexual abuse when it occurs, not only inside the church, and that regional access to support services remains unequal. 17. The panel has a collegial but occasionally tense tone, with Gailiūtė-Bernotenė repeatedly redirecting the conversation away from institutional achievements and toward accountability gaps. 18. The episode follows a structured radio interview format with three voices plus one caller, moderated by a host who summarises and redirects questions between each speaker. 19. People interested in Catholic Church accountability, survivor advocacy in Lithuania, or comparative approaches to institutional abuse investigations would find this episode directly relevant. 20. Listeners who do not speak Lithuanian or who are looking for survivor testimony rather than institutional policy debate may find limited value here.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from 10–12