VATICAN CITY
ABC News
VATICAN CITY — Oct 6, 2014, 4:30 PM ET
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission has made new progress after languishing for much of the past year. It approved its legal statutes, proposed new members and divided up work to focus on reaching out to survivors, holding bishops accountable and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood, The Associated Press has learned.
The commission met over the past weekend for the third time since it was announced last December.
While Francis’ other expert commissions looking into Vatican finance and administration worked at a frenzied pace through 2014 and finished their projects in recent months, the sex abuse commission never seemed to get off the ground. It lacked organization, a clear mission statement, office space, funding and a full membership roster.
But commission member Marie Collins, herself a sex abuse survivor, told AP on Monday that much progress was made this weekend. It was the first meeting since Francis put the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Robert Oliver, on the job full-time as the commission’s secretary, or No. 2.
Headed by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the nine commission members – four of whom are women – approved their provisional statutes laying out the scope of their work that will now be put to Francis for approval, Collins said. They also finalized a list of other member candidates whom Francis must approve: There will be fewer than 20 comissioners altogether, adding experts from other fields and geographic locations and including another survivor of abuse.
The commission will soon have permanent office space and members have divided themselves into working groups focusing on a laundry list of issues, including training of priests, education outreach, accountability, guidelines and policy issues and reaching out to survivors so their input to the commission can be heard, Collins said.
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