Safeguarding within the Church and in the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL) is about authentic authority rooted in responsibility, accountability and transparency, and not about “importing secular governance into the Church”, African Catholic Sisters in the legal profession have been told. “Safeguarding has purified our understanding of authority. It has reminded us that authentic authority cannot be separated from responsibility, accountability, and transparency. This does not mean importing secular models of governance into the Church,” Francesco Pappalardo said in his presentation on Thursday, July 30. Dr. Pappalardo explained that safeguarding “means recognizing that authority is never an end in itself.