VATICAN CITY
Calgary Herald
BY NICOLE WINFIELD, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DECEMBER 5, 2013
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has responded to complaints that he has largely ignored the clerical sex abuse scandal by assembling a panel of experts to advise the Holy See on protecting children from pedophiles and helping abuse victims heal.
It remains to be seen if the experts will take up one of the core issues behind the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal: how to make bishops who shelter abusive priests accountable.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, announced the creation of the commission Thursday at the conclusion of a meeting between Francis and his eight cardinal advisers who are helping him govern the church and reform the Vatican bureaucracy.
Boston was the epicenter of the 2002 clerical sexual abuse scandal in the U.S.
O’Malley told reporters that the commission, made up of international lay and religious experts on sex abuse, would study current programs to protect children, better screen priests, train church personnel and suggest new initiatives for both the Holy See to implement inside the Vatican City State and for bishops to implement around the world. …
BishopAccountability.org, an online resource for the clergy sex abuse, cautiously welcomed the initiative but said the commission’s scope as presented by O’Malley had two “crucial omissions.”
“There is no indication that the commission will study either the Vatican’s culpability or the crucial need to discipline bishops, religious superiors and other church supervisors who enable child rape and molestation,” said Ann Barret Doyle, the site’s co-director.
SNAP, the main U.S. victim’s group, dismissed the initiative as useless and said the only thing that will protect children is if the church punished negligent bishops and ordered them to publicly disclose the names of molesters.
“This simple step would immediately make kids safer,” said David Clohessy, SNAP director. “But instead, parents and parishioners are being offered yet another toothless church panel.”
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