VATICAN CITY
America
Gerard O’Connell | Sep 12 2016
The commission set up by Pope Francis in March 2014 to advise him on preventing child sexual abuse is now making significant progress. A report published by the Vatican following the Sept. 8-11 plenary meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors reveals the role of members in educating Vatican personnel and church leadership in countries across the globe on their responsibility for the protection of children, adolescents and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse.
The report shows that commission members have already addressed meetings of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where the Holy See’s diplomats are trained, and the Congregation for Consecrated Life, which oversees religious orders and institutes of consecrated life worldwide. In the coming weeks, it will address a meeting of the Congregation for Clergy, as well as sessions for the training of new bishops (those appointed over the past year) organized by the Congregations for the Evangelization of Peoples and for Bishops. Indeed, the fact that Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse, will address these latter sessions with other commission members is a real breakthrough at the level of the Vatican.
Moreover, it reports that commission members have sought to educate church leadership through talks and workshops, on all five continents. They went to Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Fiji, Argentina, Colombia, Santo Domingo, the United States, Ghana, Tanzania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Italy. In the coming months, they plan to do likewise in Mexico, Ecuador, the conference of major superiors of men in the United States and will hold a workshop for the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences.
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