The dispute between an abuse survivor who resigned from Pope Francis’s sex abuse advisory commission and a major Vatican body intensified last week.
Marie Collins resigned from the commission in protest at the “unacceptable” lack of cooperation from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which processes canonical cases against abusive priests.
She has challenged Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the CDF, who had claimed that his congregation had cooperated with the commission.
In a letter in the National Catholic Reporter she said the CDF had ignored or hindered proposals from the commission that had been approved by the Pope.
Following Ms Collins’s resignation, Cardinal Müller told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper it was time to do away with the “cliché” that the Vatican bureaucracy was resisting Francis’s initiatives.
He explained that the CDF had opposed the commission’s proposal to create a tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who had mishandled abuse claims, on the grounds that other Vatican offices “already had the competences, the tools and judicial means” to judge negligent bishops.
In her reply Ms Collins expressed shock that the cardinal considered the tribunal a mere “proposal”. The Vatican announced in 2015 that the Pope had approved it, she said; it stated that Francis had authorised resources to fund it and that adequate personnel and a secretary would be appointed.
Help us feed 16 million at risk of starvation, says Cafod
Cafod has joined forces with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) as aid agencies respond to what the UN is calling the largest humanitarian crisis since 1945.
Drought and civil war have left millions across East Africa on the brink of starvation. The DEC has launched an appeal on behalf of four countries – South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia – more than 16 million people face severe hunger.
Matthew Carter of Cafod said: “We no longer have the ‘luxury’ of dealing with one crisis at a time. A deadly combination of extreme weather and protracted conflict is creating a humanitarian disaster across the whole region.”
He urged the international community to support the “life-saving emergency aid work of local and national organisations in these countries.”
Cafod staff report that mothers have been feeding their children by picking leaves off trees. Catherine Ogolla, the charity’s country representative for Kenya and Uganda, said nomadic and semi-nomadic groups were most vulnerable.
Cafod is appealing for donations through the East Africa Crisis page on its website.
First US-born martyr to be beatified
The first martyr born in the United States is to be beatified.
Fr Stanley Rother, who was brutally murdered in Guatemala in 1981, will be declared blessed in Oklahoma City on September 23. Pope Francis recognised his martyrdom last December.
Fr Rother, born near Okarche, Oklahoma, on a family farm, was shot dead in his church rectory during Guatemala’s civil war.
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