AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Emily Laurence
A leading New South Wales welfare worker will advise Pope Francis on safeguarding children from sexual abuse.
The founding director of CatholicCare in the city of Wollongong, Kathleen McCormack, has been appointed to the Vatican’s child protection commission.
Ms McCormack provides support to victims of child sexual abuse in the Wollongong Diocese and helps shape child protection protocols in Australia.
She said she hoped to impress upon the commission the importance that victims of sexual abuse should be believed.
“When you work with a survivor of abuse the first thing you do is when they have the courage to speak out, you believe them, and I think that’s where we have to start,” Ms McCormack said.
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