ROME
Straits Times (Singapore)

ROME (AFP) – A British paedophilia survivor who has been asked to step down from a Vatican panel on the issue said Monday that he felt betrayed by Pope Francis.

“Of course Pope Francis has established he is part of the problem,” Peter Saunders said in an interview with AFPTV, during which he insisted he had not resigned and that only the pontiff himself could force him to quit the Vatican commission.

“That breaks my heart because when I met him 18 months ago I thought there was a sincerity and a willingness to make things happen, and I am afraid that has been dashed now.”

Saunders, the head of Britain’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood, was personally asked to join the panel by Pope Francis.

His involvement, along with fellow survivor Marie Collins, helped burnish its credentials as a symbol of the…