NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
SHANE COWLISHAW
August 10 2016
By his own admission, Father Hans Zollner’s job is “dark, bleak and heavy”.
Often described as the Pope’s expert in the fight against child abuse, he has heard countless tales from those who have suffered at the hands of priests.
Zollner, a German, is president of the Centre for Child Protection at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.
He is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, set up by Pope Francis in 2014 with the single purpose of developing initiatives that could prevent future abuse within the church.
Since the late 1980s, when the first allegations of improper behaviour within the church began to surface, thousands of people have come forward claiming they were abused by priests and nuns.
Zollner has travelled all over the world in his role, arriving in New Zealand for the first time last week.
During that time he held a full-day safeguarding training day in Wellington for 85 people from all areas of the church, including Cardinal John Dew, the papal envoy and bishops.
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