Abuse Survivor Hits Back at Vatican Body

By Ellen Coyne
The Times
March 15, 2017

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abuse-survivor-hits-back-at-vatican-body-k95bmk9r0

Marie Collins said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was blocking measures to protect children

The clerical abuse survivor who resigned from the Catholic church’s commission on child safety has claimed that Vatican officials are “defending the indefensible” by dismissing her concerns.

A row has broken out between Marie Collins and a Vatican department over her claims that basic steps to protect abuse victims are being blocked. Ms Collins, who was abused by a Dublin hospital chaplain when she was 13, was one of two victims on the 16-person Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The commission was set up in 2014 within the central body of the church to propose child protection initiatives. Ms Collins resigned on March 1, citing the obstructive behaviour of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican body which oversees the theology of the church and has been increasingly involved in child protection measures.

She said that the congregation was not responding to letters from victims and had refused to co-operate with the establishment of a tribunal into alleged abuse, which was announced by Pope Francis and promised significant resources in 2015. The tribunal has since been scrapped.