Vatican Asked to Speed up Abuse Discipline

SBS
February 10, 2017

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/02/10/vatican-asked-speed-abuse-discipline

A general view shows faithful in St Peter's square, at the Vatican. (Getty)

The Vatican has been asked to change a system which sees just 12 people decide the Catholic Church's disciplinary process for child sex abusing priests from around the world.

Teresa Devlin, the chief executive of Ireland's National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, says it takes at least two years for Rome's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to reach an outcome after a case has been referred.

"I know that we have asked them (the Vatican) to consider alternatives," Ms Devlin told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Friday.

"That's a matter for them but I don't think it's justice for the accused. It's not justice for the complainant."

The royal commission heard an Irish allegation may be sent to Rome after the completion of civil processes, regardless of whether a priest was found guilty or innocent.

Ms Devlin, who joked that she had been called the most hated woman in the Catholic Church in Ireland, said she tells bishops to travel to Rome, sit outside the congregation's door and ask them to expedite the process.

She said the Church's culture in Ireland was shifting and that her main worry was that improvements would lead to complacency.

Minimising the risk of offenders accessing child pornography on the internet was the "next thing" to consider in Ireland, she said.

"We know that because of the regulations and the rules that people don't have the same... access to children (that they used to)," she said.

"If you have... a sexual interest in a child and you're still a member of the Church, well, the only other place to go was the internet."

Royal commission case study 50 has been investigating the Catholic Church's child safety policies and procedures.

It is expected to continue on Monday.