BishopAccountability.org

Vatican riven by internal battle over handling of child abuse claims

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Guardian
February 16, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/16/vatican-riven-by-internal-battle-over-handling-of-child-abuse-claims

Pope Francis.
Photo by Omar Torres

A battle is being waged within the Vatican over how senior clergy ought to handle accusations of sexual abuse amid signs that a special commission created by Pope Francis to handle the issue is being sidelined by senior church officials in Rome.

The rift was exposed after a report in the Guardian about a training course that was offered to new bishops last year in which a controversial French monsignor instructed them that it was “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of abuse to law enforcement authorities if local laws did not require it.

That stance was rejected this week by Pope Francis’s point man on abuse issues, Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley, who heads a special pontifical commission to protect minors.

“We, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society,” he said in a statement on Monday.

O’Malley also said that the special commission was committed to “extensive education efforts” within local churches since its founding two years ago, and that its members had reiterated their “willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome”, including at the training courses for new bishops and the offices of the Roman Curia, or bureaucracy.

But it is clear that these offers have not been accepted.

Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who sits on the pope’s commission, said that the commission had proposed preparing a module on child protection as early as 2014, and that the proposal was approved by Pope Francis.

But the programme was not implemented because of “resistance from the Curia”, Collins said, which chose to bring in the French monsignor and therapist Tony Anatrella instead. The training sessions were arranged by the Congregation for the Bishops.

“As a survivor it is obvious that every new bishop appointed should have the very best training in child protection,” she said.

Anatrella was a controversial choice because he is known for his views on “gender theory”, the belief that increasing acceptance of homosexuality in western countries is creating “serious problems” for children who are being exposed to “radical notions of sexual orientation”.

Collins has also pointed to resistance inside the church to the creation of a new tribunal to investigate bishops accused of covering up sexual abuse.

The establishment of the tribunal, which was announced in July, was celebrated with great fanfare as a significant step forward by the pope to try to address the issue after decades of accusations that the church systematically turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

Now, months later, after it was approved by cardinals and the pope, the proposal seems to be languishing inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body that is supposed to handle charges of abuse that are brought to the Vatican.

“The implementation is the problem,” Collins told the Irish Times. “As far as the commission is concerned the work has been done and the pope has approved it.”

The Vatican has emphasised that Anatrella’s involvement in the teaching of new bishops did not represent a departure on policy, and that Rome has said since 2011 that it was “important” to cooperate with civil authorities. But it still does not support across-the-board reporting of abuse in countries where such notification is not mandatory.

An unnamed Vatican source also told Newsweek that it was difficult to report abuse in some countries because of a “hostile” relationship between church and state and places with corrupt police forces that did not ensure the presumption of innocence.




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