Mercy Under A Boundary: Toward A Spirituality Of Safeguarding In African Church Life

Introduction

In March 2025, I was privileged to be one of the presenters at the Theology and Canon Law project (TCLP) Symposium in London under the theme — “Law & Religion in Times of Crisis, Challenges and Change.” As usual, my paper focused on the socio-religious injustice of witchcraft abuses and violence against societies’ most vulnerable, with the title — “Law, Religion, and Crisis: The Weaponisation of Witchcraft Accusations Against Older Women in Three African Countries.”

That same day, I developed a new interest in the spirituality of safeguarding when I heard it from Dr Helen Costigane, one of the symposium’s keynote speakers. Her paper was titled “Law and religion: the challenges of safeguarding today.”

During the brief Q&A session after her presentation, I recalled asking her about her thoughts on whether or not to sack priests who commit atrocities like sexual abuse to prevent the continuity of abuse, and she disagreed with me. Then I made references to the ongoing allegations of sexual abuse at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram institutions near Pau, France.[1]  

To Costigane, we do not need to dismiss them, but defrock and allow them to be part of the congregation.

Here is the question — Can forgiveness coexist with uncompromising protection?

I embraced her response with mixed feelings, knowing that what she said could only be effective in certain contexts and not all. Forgiveness differs from seating offenders beside survivors. At the same time, I understand her about helping these religious leaders to understand their errors, but people do not necessarily change, do they? The inevitable is that a credible spirituality of safeguarding must integrate mercy within firm boundaries, prioritising the vulnerable while allowing for measured restoration.

This essay will explore the spirituality of safeguarding by aiming to offer a response to the following question — How can an explicitly articulated “spirituality of safeguarding” be constructed for African church life in such a way that it balances mercy toward offending ministers with uncompromising protection of the vulnerable—especially children exposed to demon‑centred, doomsday rhetoric?

Defining Safeguarding Spirituality

Safeguarding pertains to protective measures exercised with vulnerable individuals or groups, such as children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Protection is a pronounced parameter within safeguarding. Integrating spirituality makes child protection a prayerful practice.

How does one deal with evil by the church leaders? It is by naming the evil and addressing it appropriately. The Bétharram scandal was one of many recent revelations of sexual abuses within the French Catholic Church and organisations.[2] Even our most beloved late Pope Francis, who spent significant part of his papacy trying to reform the Church of these sexual scandals, commented in a televised news program that the Vatican was aware for years of the late Abbé Pierre’s serial sexual abuses that caused another series of anguish for many children who are now grown-ups and are exposing the long-held secrets.[3] Naming the evil prevents it from being concealed and allows the pathway to repentance and eventual forgiveness.[4]  

Nevertheless, naming evil is only the beginning. Prevention is safeguarding, so it does not get repeated. But we have seen repeatedly the forms these abuses take on when they are reincarnated in multiple forms and perpetrated by clergy in positions of ethics and care. A few days ago, I gave my responses to the new chapter contribution, where Afe Adogame has shown how religious bodies, including the Roman Catholic Church, have provided the theological and institutional cover for clerical sexual abuse and facilitated actions of deviance that are accepted as spiritually or morally sanctioned under religious authority and sanctity.[5]  As Adogame puts it, “For many centuries, the Catholic Church focused on the perpetrators… The solution was confession, conversion, penance, absolution, and forgiveness. Because of the seal of confession, the abuse remained secret.”[6] His comment reveals the more profound lack of a safeguarding spirituality, for the historical response of the Church privileged institutional secrecy over pastoral accountability and justice, disclosing a lack of a gospel-rooted ethic of care, justice, and transparency for the vulnerable, not prioritising the healing, dignity, and protection of victims.

It is this same emphasis on the rehabilitation of the perpetrator that brings us back to Costigane’s stance. No one disputed that in the hearts of humans lie the well of weaknesses and fragility that often requires the Grace of God in taming. As Miroslav Volf affirms, “In a world of evil, however, we cannot dispense with imperfect and therefore essentially unjust justice… unjust justice is therefore indispensable for satisfying the demands of love in an unjust world.”[7]  However, we must define clear lines of defrocking, dismissal, or reinstatement. My response to Adogame was more of a rhetorical question: Why not evaluate and move towards the complete elimination of celibacy among the priests?

Mandatory clerical celibacy was consolidated by the Western Church in the twelfth century—canon 7 of Lateran II (1139) annulled priestly marriages and classified future unions as invalid.[8]  This reshaped spiritual purity and fostered a legacy of violence, especially against women, through witchcraft accusations.[9] With celibacy elevated as a symbol of holiness, the Church subtly reinforced gendered binaries that demonised the body and cast anything outside of ecclesiastical control as dangerous. The holy became more than sacred—it became a weapon.

The Pastoral Tension: Mercy vs Protection

Safeguarding is not confined to preventing physical or sexual abuse; it also names the obligation to shield the most suggestible—especially children, from psychological violence. Doomsday sermons that trade in witches, relentless warfare metaphors, and imminent catastrophe may thrill adults but terrorise the young. When the ecclesial imagination turns the world into a demonic minefield, we exchange “life in abundance” (Jn 10:10) for chronic spiritual anxiety.

As a habitus of attentiveness, safeguarding is spirituality embodied, not just a policy or legal procedure; instead, a theological commitment to the flourishing and protection of others, especially the most at risk. Our spirituality can either sway us towards ensuring others around us are protected, promoting their existence via nonjudgmental patterns, or it can be used to the downfall of others.[10]  

As Costigane reflects on the notion of boundaried mercy in “Shepherding the Shepherds – Caring for Suspended or Laicised Priests,” she critiques the Church’s handling of abuse allegations, particularly the neglect of pastoral care and due process for accused clergy. She calls for a more compassionate and just approach—one that preserves both canonical rights and human dignity.[11]

Where forgiveness is most efficient, it is best used and respected, notably in the imitation of God. Equally, within this lies the need to never forget the human dimension: that human beings can re-offend over and over again, and this is because humans are part of communities that either encourage or discourage their sinful activities. Offended clergies who continue to be part of congregations pose significant threats to the preferential option for the vulnerable, where safeguarding decisions should tilt in their favour. Hence, safeguarding’s first duty is shielding, since proximity traumatises. Besides, one must not forget the culture of complicity — that perpetrators ‘know’ one another—and even when one clergy is transferred, the incoming clergy with similar habitual patterns is often cognisant of what the terrain has been. We must also not forget that genuine repentance is challenging to achieve, especially for those not ready to change.[12]  This is evident in a series of cases, such as Bétharram, where priests, with impunity, continued their atrocities as they moved from one region to another for decades until the scandals were exposed. Many of them are no longer alive to be held accountable.

This is precisely where Costigane’s rehabilitative instinct meets its limit. Leaders steeped in dishonesty, greed, and empathy‑deficit create a climate of fear they presume to cure; their removal—or, at minimum, stringent boundary-setting—is therefore integral to safeguarding. Allowing such persons continued influence is enthroning chaos at the heart of the ecclesia and forgetting the imitation of Christ to enable stability of both the Church and its flocks in pushing forward the Gospel. Few wounds match the abandonment victims endure.[13]  

Spirituality of Safeguarding in African church life

A spirituality of safeguarding in African church life can be constructed by integrating the church’s role as a protective family, employing a multidisciplinary approach, and ensuring holistic child protection. Balancing mercy with protection involves restorative justice and spiritual accountability.

Theological clarity, especially for an African context, is required to establish a safeguarding spirituality that upholds mercy towards offending ministers while safeguarding the vulnerable, perhaps under demon-centred rhetoric, especially regarding children. Witchcraft accusations are not the only abuses levelled against children within the African church; others include neglect and abandonment, sexual, physical and all kinds of abuses. The reason for the continuity of these abuses on an alarming scale is the Church’s disregard for the child’s ecclesial position; however, this is not only an African issue.[14]  As the Family of God, the African Church should find its voice in safeguarding, where accountability, care, and justice are covenantal obligations.[15]  This safeguarding spirituality must be informed by a theology of accountability formed both in the life of Jesus and his teachings. The ministry of Jesus consistently centred on the vulnerable. A theology of this type resists the silence and impunity surrounding offending clergy and clergy types; instead, it demands pastoral accountability and transparency. The ministry can justify responsibility for transformation through restorative justice rather than punishment.

Cultural resources can underwrite an ethical safeguarding system based on Ubuntu and African Traditional Religions. As values within biblical and African moral frameworks, these practices emphasise relationship responsibility, interdependence, and protection. Faith formation seminaries would promote survivor-centred structures, rejecting violence in theology and practices (spiritualised violence) through a sustained process. Safeguarding can disrupt theologies of harm and resist ecclesiastical complicity when it becomes a lived spirituality—a habitus of attentiveness.

In conclusion, mercy under a boundary is not a lack of grace; it is grace disciplined for the sake of the vulnerable. Where children tremble and leaders thrive on fear, the spirituality of safeguarding has already died; reviving it means pairing mercy with iron boundaries and prophetic accountability. The credibility of the gospel is tied to demonstrable safety.

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References

[1] INA. “Affaire du collège-lycée de Bétharram : ce que l’on sait dans les archives.” INA Éclaire Actu, February 17, 2025. https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/betharram-ecole-pension-pau-francois-bayou-violence.

[2] Monica Ferrère, Affaire Abbé Pierre: ‘J’espère qu’ils vont rouvrir l’enquête’, réagit une victime après les dernières révélations,” Franceinfo, September 14, 2024, https://www.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/abbe-pierre-accuse-de-violences-sexuelles/temoignage-affaire-abbe-pierre-j-espere-qu-ils-vont-rouvrir-l-enquete-reagit-une-victime-apres-les-dernieres-revelations_7198704.html.

[3] Simon Leplâtre, “Pope Francis Says Vatican Knew for Years About Abbé Pierre’s Sexual Assaults,” Le Monde, September 14, 2024, https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/09/14/pope-francis-says-vatican-knew-for-years-about-abbe-pierre-s-sexual-assaults_6726013_4.html.

[4] Bram de Muynck, “Living Out the Possibility of Renewal: Forgiveness in Educational Practice,” In Brokenness and Grace: Rehabilitating Thelogical Perspectives in Education. Eds. Roel Kuper & Bram de Muynck (Leiden: Brill, 2025)114.

[5] Afe Adogame, “I Am a Witch for Jesus!”: Confronting Ritual Praxis, Symbolic Violence, and Trauma in African Evangelical Pentecostalism, in African Evangelicalism and the Transformation of Africa, ed. Jacob K. Olupona (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2025), 320-321.

[6] Adogame, “I Am a Witch for Jesus!” 320.

[7] Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace : A Theological Exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation. (Nashvillel: Abingdon Press, 1996), 222.

[8] Second Lateran Council, canon 7 (1139); text in Norman P. Tanner (ed.), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 1 (Washington, 1990), 194

[9] Matilda, Joslyn Gage. Woman, Church, & State (New York: The Truth Seeker Company, 1893), 96.

[10] Emmanuel Y. Lartey, “Be-ing in Relation: The Goal of African Spiritual Practice,” In Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care: Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age. Eds. Emmanuel Y. Lartey & Hellena Moon (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2020), 5.

[11] Helen B. Costigane, “Shepherding the Shepherds – Caring for Suspended or Laicised Priests.” Association of Catholic Priests, September 14, 2015. https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/shepherding-the-shepherds-caring-for-suspended-or-laicised-priests/.

[12] Volf, Exclusion and Embrace. 118.

[13] Volf, Exclusion and Embrace. 26.

[14] Idara Otu, Child Protection in the Church as Family of God,” Journal of Moral Theology. 3, 3 (2023): 87; Marcia J. Bunge & John Wall, “Christianity,” In Children and Childhold in Wold Religions: Primary Sources and Texts. Eds Don S. Browning & Marcia J. Bunge (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2011),85-86.

[15] Otu, “Child Protection in the Church,” 97-98.

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© Claire Princess Ayelotan, 2025.

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Cover Image: Provided by the author.