UNITED STATES
The Republican
At Vatican, Cardinal O’Malley raises issue of bishop accountability in reporting sexual abuse, though Chilean bishop remains
By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com
on April 18, 2015
This article is a follow on Clergy sexual abuse survivor Marie Collins heads to Rome in protest over bishop’s appointment before Hartford talk.
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston has reportedly made known to Pope Francis, in the guise of bishop accountability, the concerns of members of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors over the pope’s appointment of a Chilean bishop who has been accused of covering up abuse.
Clergy sexual abuse survivor Marie Collins, who will be the keynote speaker at the 2015 National Assembly of the Voice of the Faithful in Hartford on April 18, was one of three members who flew to Rome over the weekend to meet with O’Malley. O’Malley heads the Vatican commission and was in Rome for a meeting of the Council of Cardinals that advises the pope on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.
According to the Catholic news website CruxNow, O’Malley spoke with both Francis and the council on the accountability of bishops who fail to report sexual abuse.
Francis met with six survivors of church sexual abuse last summer, asking their forgiveness for the actions of pedophile priests, and saying in a homily that “all bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.”
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