IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
The Vatican’s commission for the protection of minors has issued a strongly worded statement emphasising that there is a “moral and ethical responsibility” on relevant church authorities and others to report all suspected cases of child sexual abuse to civil authorities.
Commission President Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, said: “As Pope Francis has so clearly stated: ‘The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer. I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all’.”
The Cardinal continued “we, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society.”
He also said that “as the Holy Father’s advisory commission for the protection of minors, we recently shared with Pope Francis an overview of the commission’s extensive education efforts in local churches over the past two years and reiterated the members’ willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome, including to the annual training programme for new bishops and to the offices of the Roman Curia for their use in their own child protection efforts.”
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