UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet
15 June 2015 by Danny Sullivan
On 10 June Pope Francis’ “C9” advisory group of cardinals had one of their regular meetings with him, and if we needed persuading that Pope Francis was serious about reform, the three matters reported on related to: the Vatican finances and how they were overseen, the reorganisation of Vatican communications and radical proposals from the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The proposals around safeguarding suggested putting an end to system whereby three different congregations deal with complaints about bishops, and instead set up a tribunal that would be located within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This alone would judge bishops in relation to abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.
The proposals for these changes, presented by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, were agreed by the advisory group of cardinals and immediately approved by Pope Francis. For a Church that is supposed to think in centuries, that is genuinely impressive.
As the commission recommended, Francis agreed that the tribunal should be properly set up, resourced and be given five years to settle to its work and then be evaluated.
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