VATICAN CITY
NPR
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
One of the Vatican’s most prominent critics, who pushed for greater protections for children and harsher punishments for pedophile priests, has taken a leave of absence from the pope’s advisory commission on clerical sex abuse.
Peter Saunders, a British survivor of sexual abuse by a priest, was appointed to Pope Francis’ Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014. The commission, which first met in early 2014, includes both clergy and lay people.
A Vatican statement Saturday said “it was decided” that Saunders would take a leave of absence to “consider how he might best support the commission’s work,” The Associated Press and Reuters report. The announcement came halfway through the commission’s three-day meeting, scheduled for Friday through Sunday.
His departure is a blow to the pope’s efforts to show he’s tough on sex abuse, the AP writes. With Saunders gone, one survivor of clerical sexual abuse remains on the 16-person commission.
Saunders has openly criticized the Church hierarchy for failing to prevent or punish sexual abuse by priests. He was unafraid of challenging even the highest-ranking cardinals: last year he called for the resignation of Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s economic minister, over the decades-long abuse of Australian children.
“Saunders has also been outspoken about a case of an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in Chile and threatened to resign from the commission over the Vatican’s handling of that case,” Reuters reports. “The Vatican says the commission is an advisory group and members should not make comments on individual cases.”
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