Safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons must be a priority for everyone in the church, Pope Francis said during an audience May 5 with staff and members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors at the Vatican.
"The report is only the facts, just putting things out there and indicating where pieces are missing. Now we have to look at what we do with that." A potential outcome: consequences for Archbishop Viganò.
Questions have been raised about how the church should determine whether a lay movement should be reformed or dissolved when there is abuse or corruption.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met online and, for those who could, in Rome for their plenary assembly Sept. 16-18.
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.
NCR Connections: Vulnerability, properly understood, is precisely what members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy need to embrace as a strength, argues Fr. James Keenan.
Just days after the Vatican abuse summit, Leadership Roundtable released proposals for reforming the clerical culture that permitted sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults to persist.
Vatican City: Peter Isely, an Ending Clergy Abuse member who took part in the meeting, said some of the survivors told the summit organizers it was "not OK" that Francis was not there.
Vatican City: Vatican officials Feb. 18 declined to comment on the case of a priest working at the Catholic Church's highest court who has been listed by his home diocese as credibly accused of abuse.
