VATICAN CITY
The Guardian
Rosie Scammell
Saturday 6 February 2016
A British survivor of clerical sex abuse has left the Vatican’s inquiry into paedophilia within the Catholic Church, adding to pressure on Pope Francis to take concrete action.
Peter Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a teenager and has been a vocal critic of the church’s response to child abuse scandals, was attending the advisory body’s weekend meeting when it was agreed that he should step down.
“It was decided that Mr. Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence from his membership to consider how he might best support the commission’s work,” said the advisory board, officially known as the pontifical commission for the protection of minors.
The president of the commission, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, said Saunders had been asked to advise on “the possible establishment of a victim survivor panel to work with the commission”.
Saunders, along with Marie Collins, another victim from Ireland, was chosen by the pope to join the commission in 2014, to advise the Vatican on how to respond to historic clerical abuse.
He was described as a “brave, honest and tireless voice for kids and victims” by David Clohessy, director of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap). He accused the Vatican of inaction.
“They do what church officials have done for decades: shrewdly fixate on and discuss meaningless internal policies on paper that give the impression of progress while changing virtually nothing,” he said.
Saunders criticised the Holy See’s response to paedophilia within the church, calling on the Vatican to sack its financial chief, Cardinal George Pell, over his alleged involvement in covering up abuse. The Australian cardinal turned to his lawyers, while the commission sought to distance itself from Saunders’ “personal views”.
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