ROME
Crux
September 10, 2018
By Charles Collins
Members of the Vatican’s commission for protecting young people in the Church have been listening to victims and survivors of abuse in Rome, while also pointing out they have no remit to investigate individual allegations of abuse.
The 9th ordinary plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was set up by Pope Francis in 2014, took place Sep. 7-9.
“Members began by listening to two testimonies of people who were affected by clerical child sexual abuse, a victim/survivor and the mother of two adult survivors who were abused as children. The Commission thanks them for sharing their stories with us, for the courage of their witness and for contributing to the learning process,” said a communique issued on Sunday.
The statement also said they spoke about the “the recent developments in the global church that have negatively affected so many people including victims/survivors, families and the community of faithful,” most likely referring to the release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on clerical abuse which contained allegations of around 1,000 separate cases of abuse committed by over 300 priests over the past 75 years and the case of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who had a “credible and substantiated” allegation of abuse lodged against him, leading to his resignation from the college of cardinals.
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