Pope's Child Protection Board Urges Vatican's Sex Abuse Office To Be Transparent

Pope Francis' child protection board called Tuesday for victims of clergy sexual abuse to have greater access to information about ir cases and right to compensation, in first-ever global assessment of Catholic Church’s efforts to dress crisis.

Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors issued a series of findings and recommendations in its pilot annual report, zeroing in on church in a dozen countries, two religious orders and two Vatican offices with detailed analysis.

In its most critical note, it called for greater transparency from Vatican’s sex abuse office , Dicastery for Doctrine of Faith. It said office’s slow processing of cases and secrecy were retraumatizing to victims, and its refusal to publish statistics or its own jurisprudence continues "to foment distrust among faithful, especially victim/survivor community.”

50-page report marks something of a milestone for commission, which in its 10-year existence has struggled to find its footing in a Vatican often resistant to confronting abuse crisis and hostile to endorsing victim-focused policies.

Francis created it in 2014, a year after his election, to vise Vatican on best practices to prevent clergy sexual abuse . He named Boston’s n-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley , as commission’s he.

After several founding members resigned in frustration , fed up with Vatican stonewalling and commission’s own internal problems, commission has stabilized in recent years, focusing on realistic areas where it can be of service. One key priority has been providing funding and expertise to churches in poorer countries where re are fewer resources to craft and implement child protection guidelines and tend to victims.

In its report, commission noted, for example, that Catholic Church in Mexico is hampered by “significant cultural barriers to reporting abuse that prevent process of justice.” In Papua New Guinea, limited funding means insufficient training for church personnel and services for victims. Even rape kits that are needed for criminal investigations are prohibitively expensive, report found.

Its main conclusions, though, were of a global nature: Victims, it said, must have right to information about ir cases held by church, since secrecy and long processing times often serve to revictimize m. It proposed a special Vatican vocate or ombudsman to look after victims’ needs.

As a function of restorative justice — termed "conversional justice” -– victims must have right to compensation for ir abuse, including financial reparations but also public apologies to help m heal, it said.

And it called for a more uniform definition and understanding of church policies to protect “vulnerable ults” from abuse, moving beyond tendency to only consider abuse of minors as criminal. call is meant to dress demands that church do more to protect religious sisters, seminarians and even ordinary ult faithful from religious gurus who abuse ir authority and take vantage of ults under ir spiritual sway.

Francis in 2022 asked commission to produce report, saying he wanted an audit of progress of what is being done well and what must change.

commission noted that in at least this first effort, report wasn't an audit of incidence of abuse in church. It said in order to become an actual auditing mechanism, “ commission would need access to more specific statistical information” from Vatican sex abuse office, which receives all credible reports of abuse of minors in church but apparently didn’t provide data to commission.

commission called for greater collaboration and dialogue with office, and said it was “pleased to note dicastery is exploring what steps can be undertaken” to help bishops and religious superiors tend to victims.

It also called for office to make more public its work, including via acemic lectures and conferences, and also offer more material to bishops to help m minister justice.

Francis earlier this year allowed O’Malley to retire, five years beyond normal retirement age for bishops, and recently hinted that leership of commission would pass to its current No. 2 official, Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera.