VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 22, 2014
Pope Francis on Saturday announced eight members of a new commission in the Catholic church’s central bureaucracy tasked with advising the pontiff on safeguarding children from sex abuse and working pastorally with abuse victims.
Among the members are Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, four laywomen, one Italian professor, and two priests.
Strikingly, one of the laywomen, Marie Collins, is herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. An Irishwoman who has campaigned for more thorough investigation of clergy accused of abuse, Collins struggled for years to bring her own abuser to justice.
Announcing the names of the new group in a press release Saturday, the Vatican said the eight would be responsible for determining the commission’s structure, outlining its duties, and putting forward names of other candidates who might join its work.
Detailing of the new commission, officially titled the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, comes as Francis has been facing renewed questioning regarding his understanding of the continuing global clergy sex abuse crisis and his lack of discussion of the topic.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.