ROME
National Catholic Reporter
March 7, 2018
By Joshua J. McElwee
ROME — Pope Francis’ clergy sexual abuse commission could be more effective in protecting children if the group were granted more time to work directly with the pope and given resources to hold more in-person meetings each year, a former member has suggested.
French child psychiatrist Catherine Bonnet, who was among a group of six founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors not reappointed by Francis last month, said the “most important thing” is that the group does not have adequate time to explain its proposals directly to the pontiff.
“We never worked with Pope Francis,” Bonnet said in an NCR interview Feb. 19. “We only said hello, two minutes, and good-bye, two minutes.”
“The most important thing for the next commission … would be that there are times where Pope Francis can come and the proposals are explained to him, why they are so important,” she said.
Francis renewed the mandate of the abuse commission Feb. 17, reappointing eight of its previous members and adding nine new people to its ranks. The renewal came two months after the remit of the commission had lapsed Dec. 17, when the three-year terms of its founding members had expired.
Francis is not known to have held a working meeting with the abuse commission, which was established at the advice of his advisory Council of Cardinals in December 2013.
In July 2014, the pope celebrated Mass with abuse survivors and spent over three hours in private meetings with them, in an effort organized by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of the commission.
In September 2017, Francis held his first formal meeting with commission members, during which he admitted that the Catholic Church waited too long before taking reports of clergy sexual abuse seriously. While two members addressed the pope at that encounter, there was no discussion on issues their group is trying to tackle.
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