VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service
By Josephine McKenna
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The only abuse survivor currently serving on a panel set up by Pope Francis to fight clerical sexual abuse says the Catholic Church is making good progress and welcomed changes initiated by the Vatican and the pontiff.
Marie Collins, who was raped at age 13 by a hospital chaplain in Ireland, is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
“I have complained about slowness and frustration in the past,” Collins told RNS this week. “From my point of view as a survivor, I would like everything to happen tomorrow.”
But, she continued, “We have had some really positive moves.”
Collins, who has said she would quit the panel if she did not see substantive reforms, specifically cited the commission’s participation in an orientation program for new bishops at the Vatican last week.
She also pointed to a papal decree issued in June by Francis and designed to make bishops more accountable for abusers and to mandate their removal if found to be “negligent” — something that had not happened before.
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