ROME
Crux
Inés San MartínSeptember 10, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT
ROME- When the clerical sexual abuse scandals first erupted in the English-speaking world, above all in the United States, many Catholic observers in other parts of the world, very much including the Vatican, dismissed the revelations as an “Anglo-Saxon” problem.
Eventually, however, awareness dawned that sexual abuse is actually a global scourge, which is a large part of the reason Pope Francis shortly after his election created a new “Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors” to advise him on reform.
Headed by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, the commission was established in 2014 and now has 15 members: 7 women and 8 men, both religious and laypeople, all of them experts in their fields, inclduing child protection trainers, psychologists, lawyers, survivors and specialists in human rights.
Among those joining the commission was Doctor Gabriel Dy-Liacco from the Philippines, an adult and adolescent psychotherapist and pastoral counselor for individuals, couples, families and groups, including both victims and perpetrators of abuse. Trained at Maryland’s Loyola University and the St. Luke Institute, he currently lives in the Philippines with his wife and children.
Dy-Liacco was in Rome this week, participating in the commission’s general assembly.
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