VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
By Mark Piggott March 22, 2014
Marie Collins, the Irish woman who has campaigned to highlight the issue of paedophilia in the Catholic Church since being abused as a child in the 1960s, has been invited to join a special panel set up by Pope Francis to end the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church, which the Pope has called “the shame of the church”.
Collins, who established the Irish victim support group One in Four, says bishops who fail to root out paedophile priests or protect children should themselves be punished by the Vatican.
Others invited to join the four-man, four-woman panel include British psychiatrist Baroness Sheila Hollins, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Hanna Suchocka, the former Polish prime minister. The group will assume a number of responsibilities including educating people about child exploitation.
Marie Collins (L), an Irish victim of clerical abuse, attends Penitential VigilREUTERS/Tony Gentile
Pope Francis, who today also spoke out to condemn the Mafia, has been criticised for not acting fast enough to deal with the paedophilia scandal since he took over from Benedict XVI.
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