VATICAN CITY
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor April 1, 2016
Let’s face it: Pope Francis may be a smash hit in plenty of other areas, but in the eyes of many survivors of clerical sexual abuse and their most prominent advocates, his track record so far leaves something to be desired.
In that context, news that the pope’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has hired Teresa Kettlekamp, the former executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, to help lead the Vatican’s own anti-abuse effort, is a badly needed dose of good news.
Kettlekamp spoke to Crux on Thursday, marking her first interview since taking her new Vatican position.
Anyone who knows the global situation of the Catholic Church with regard to the sexual abuse issue realizes two things:
* First, whatever its shortcomings, the Catholic Church in the United States has adopted tougher and more sweeping policies than most nations in the world, and for sure has invested greater resources in developing cutting-edge abuse prevention and detection programs.
* Second, Kettelkamp is clearly a reformer on the abuse issue, a former Illinois police colonel who has no tolerance for law-breakers or lax enforcement procedures.
The fact that Kettelkamp has been taken on by the Vatican is thus another sign that reformers are in the ascendant in Rome, and deniers are on the run.
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