VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 5, 2013
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has ordered the creation of a new commission in the church’s central bureaucracy tasked with advising the pontiff on safeguarding children from sex abuse and working pastorally with abuse victims, the Vatican said Thursday.
Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the lone American serving among the eight cardinals advising the pope on church reform, announced the new group at a press briefing. Creation of the new commission, he said, came at the suggestion of the cardinals’ group, known formally as the Council of Cardinals.
While O’Malley said the pope has not determined the specifics of how the commission will function or where it will fit into the Vatican’s bureaucracy, the cardinal said it is to be composed of an international range of experts and is to focus on the pastoral aspect of the continuing clergy sex abuse crisis.
“Up to now, there’s been so much focus on the judicial parts of this, but the pastoral response of the church is very, very important and the Holy Father is concerned about that,” said O’Malley.
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