BishopAccountability.org

Priest Abuse Victim Is Suspended From Vatican Panel

By Elisabetta Povoledo And Laurie Goodsteinfeb
New York Times
February 6, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/world/europe/priest-abuse-victim-is-suspended-from-vatican-panel.html

Peter Saunders was on a 17-member commission created to address sexual abuse.
Photo by Tony Gentile

ROME — A high-profile Vatican commission on the prevention of child sexual abuse voted on Saturday to temporarily suspend one of its members, an outspoken victim of clerical abuse who accused the church of failing to deliver on its promises of reform and accountability.

But the suspended member, Peter Saunders, said at a news conference in Rome on Saturday that he would stand his ground. “I have not left, and am not leaving my position on the commission,” Mr. Saunders said. “I was appointed by His Holiness Pope Francis, and I will talk only with him about my position.”

The public blowup could undermine confidence in the pope’s efforts to rebuild the Roman Catholic Church’s credibility on the child abuse issue. When the 17-member commission was created by Francis in his first year as pope, many victims and their advocates hoped that the presence on the panel of Mr. Saunders and another victim would spur the commission to act forcefully. But Mr. Saunders, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, in England, has complained that the commission has failed to produce tangible results.

The commission succeeded in urging Francis to  create a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who are accused of failing to act to prevent sexual abuse of children. But Mr. Saunders and abuse victims say there has been no progress since the pope approved it last June.

Another point of conflict is whether the commission should intervene in individual cases of bishops’ being accused of abuse or cover-up. Mr. Saunders was one of three members who met last year with the commission’s president, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, to object to Francis’ appointment of a bishop in Chile who has been accused of complicity in an abuse case there.

The church in Chile has been coping with an explosion of discontent ever since Francis proceeded with the appointment of Bishop Juan Barros to lead the diocese of Osorno. Bishop Barros was a close associate of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a Santiago priest whom the Vatican found guilty of sexual abuse in 2011.

Father Karadima’s victims say that Bishop Barros was aware of the abuse and failed to speak up, and then failed to support the victims when they stepped forward. But Francis was caught on video last year calling the people of Osorno “dumb” for protesting against Bishop Barros with what he said was no proof.

At the commission’s meeting on Saturday, its third since it was formed, Mr. Saunders asked to bring in one of Father Karadima’s victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, to speak to the members. Mr. Saunders said that he was refused, and that commission members told him they were frustrated with his speaking to the news media and advocating action on specific cases. Instead, the 16 members present voted “no confidence” in his membership, with 15 in favor and one abstention.

At the Rome news conference, Mr. Cruz said the commission had become the “laughingstock of survivors.” Mr. Cruz had been recommended for membership on the panel, but emails published by Chilean news outlets showed that the Chilean church hierarchy had blocked him.

“No matter what we do, we hit a brick wall with Francis, his commission and his cardinals,” said Mr. Cruz.

Marie Collins, the other abuse survivor on the commission, said that she, too, was frustrated by the “slowness with which things are moving,” but that the commission’s mandate was to work on policy change, and not deal with specific cases.

“I wish we could change things tomorrow, I think all members of the commission wish that, but we are just an advisory body,” she said. “We don’t have the power.”

A Vatican statement on Saturday said that the commission had asked Mr. Saunders to take a “leave of absence.”




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