Vatican to Set up Special Committee on Child Sex Abuse

swissinfo
December 5, 2013

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Vatican_to_set_up_special_committee_on_child_sex_abuse.html?cid=37477306

The Vatican is to set up a special committee to improve measures to protect children against sexual abuse within the Church, the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, said on Thursday.

"Up until now there has been so much focus on the judicial parts of this but the pastoral part is very, very important. The Holy Father is concerned about that," O'Malley told reporters, referring to Pope Francis.

The commission of experts would "study these issues and bring concrete recommendations" for the Pope and the Vatican, he said.

O'Malley was speaking on the third and final day of a series of closed-door meetings between Pope Francis and a special commission of eight cardinals who are discussing the Vatican's troubled administration.

The commission, named a month after the pope's election, underlined his determination to push through reforms of the Vatican's top-heavy administration and tackle festering scandals like the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)