IRELAND
Irish Central
James O’Shea @irishcentral October 07, 2014
After what has been referred to as a “lost year” Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission has made progress this week.
During a meeting last weekend the commission approved its legal statutes, proposed new members and divided up work to focus on reaching out to survivors, holding bishops accountable and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood.
Over the past year it seemed that the commission, established by Pope Francis, had languished and lacked organization, a clear mission, office space, funding and a full membership roster.
On Monday, Marie Collins, an Irish sex abuse survivor, told the AP they had made progress during their first meeting after the Pope assigned the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Robert Oliver, to the post of full-time sescretary to the commission.
The nine commission members have approved their provisional statutes laying out the scope of their work. This will now be put to Francis for approval.
They finalized a list of other member candidates whom the Pope must also approve. There will be fewer than 20 commissioners altogether, including experts from other fields and geographic locations and another survivor of abuse.
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