VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 6, 2017
VATICAN CITY
The head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation has defended his office’s apparent refusal to reply to letters from victims of clergy sexual abuse, a decision which led the only abuse survivor on the pontifical commission about the matter to resign her post.
Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says in a new interview it is “a misunderstanding” to think that his office “could deal with all the dioceses and religious orders in the world.”
“It is good that personal contact with victims be done by pastors in their area,” Muller said in an interview Sunday with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. “When a letter arrives, we always ask the bishop that he might take pastoral care of the victim, clarifying to him or her that the Congregation will do all that is possible to give justice.”
Having the Vatican congregation respond to the letters, the cardinal states, “would not respect the legitimate principle of diocesan autonomy and subsidiarity.”
Muller was speaking four days after Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor, resigned her post on Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. In a statement for NCR March 1, Collins explained she was resigning due to frustration with Vatican officials’ reluctance to cooperate with the commission’s work to protect children and care for survivors.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.