Abuse Panel Seeks New Rules

By Jordan Graham
Boston Herald
May 4, 2014

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/05/abuse_panel_seeks_new_rules


A Vatican commission led by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley will create new policies to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable for failing to report suspected sexual abuse, a move experts say shows the church is taking the problem of pedophile priests more seriously than in the past.

“That reflects a changing culture at the top,” said the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at Boston College.

Pope Francis created the commission in December to advise him on church sexual abuse, and its eight members met for the first time last week. O’Malley yesterday said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they failed to protect children but those laws haven’t been enough and new protocols are needed.

“Our concern is to make sure there are clear and effective protocols to deal with the situations where superiors of the church have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” O’Malley said.

Bretzke said the way church officials, particularly O’Malley, speak about the scandal has changed more than the substance.

“(O’Malley) is continuing to say this, and I think every time he speaks, he’s becoming a little more forthright,” Bretzke said. “These sorts of things would have been said before, but they would have been much more highly coded, and toned down.”

By putting O’Malley in charge and including committee members who are not part of the Vatican elite, Pope Francis is acknowledging the need for ?the commission.

“He’s not running from it, he’s not trying to bury it,” Bretzke said.

Phil Saviano, a survivor and former head of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the commission must emphasize punishing church superiors who did not report abuse in the past.

“There seems to be a lot of talk about accountability,” Saviano said. “Certainly that seems to be what a lot of victims are looking for, consequences.”

The Vatican is under increasing pressure to address the abuse, including by the United Nations. Tomorrow, the U.N. Committee against Torture will scrutinize the church’s response.

Still, there is no timeline for creating the new rules, or even a date for the next meeting.

“The problem with committees is they tend to have a lot of meetings and a lot of time goes by,” Saviano said. “What I worry about is three years will go by without anything being done.”