Pope defensive on sex abuse as commission lags

VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
March 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is coming under increasing criticism that he doesn’t get it on sex abuse.

Three months after the Vatican announced a commission of experts to study best practices on protecting children, no action has been taken, no members appointed, no statute outlining the commission’s scope approved.

Francis hasn’t met with any victims, hasn’t moved to oust a bishop convicted of failing to report a problem priest, and on Wednesday insisted that the church had been unfairly attacked on abuse, using the defensive rhetoric of the Vatican from a decade ago.

Victims’ groups cried foul, saying his tone was archaic and urging Francis to show the same compassion he shows to the sick, poor and disabled to people who were raped by priests.

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