Charles Scicluna

The Vatican is sending its top two sex crimes investigators to Mexico on a fact-finding and assistance mission as the Catholic hierarchy in the world's second-largest Catholic country begins to reckon with decades of clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

In a talk at Villanova University, Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner said that clericalism is the root cause of the damage done to the church; he called out past systemic failure in stopping abuse.

Nearly two decades after the Vatican assumed responsibility for reviewing all cases of abuse, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is today overwhelmed, struggling with a skeleton staff that hasn't grown at pace to meet the four-fold increase in the number of cases arriving in 2019 compared to a decade ago.

While some panelists praised the progress made in past decades, including declining numbers of new cases and better pastoral support for victims, a survivor on the panel hit back about comments that church leaders have had to experience a "learning curve" on the issue.

Comparing the task facing the church to the Herculean labor of cleaning the Augean stables, Collins said she believes significant change can occur only with continuous pressure "by lay people who love the church."

The Polish bishops' administrative council met in emergency session May 22 and later admitted the church failed to act against clerical sexual abuse.

NCR Connections: Vulnerability, properly understood, is precisely what members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy need to embrace as a strength, argues Fr. James Keenan.

Signs of the Times: The new norms dealing with cover-ups are a good first step, but in civil society as in the church, good laws are not enough. Enforcement is also necessary if children are to be protected and survivors of abuse are to have justice.