Two members of Pope Francis’s commission on child protection have clashed over the effectiveness of recent reforms.
The psychiatrist Baroness Hollins said that the Pope’s new procedures for hearing cases against bishops were an important step. But Peter Saunders, the founder of Napac (the National Association for People Abused in Childhood), said Francis had “done little on child abuse”.
The discussion, in the letters page of the Guardian, was prompted by a new book by the journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, which strongly criticised the Pope’s record on combating child abuse.
Mr Fittipaldi’s book Lussuria (“Lust”) alleged that some clerical abusers had been treated leniently by the Vatican, and the Pope’s commission had only met three or four times.
Baroness Hollins, a former president of the British Medical Association, said that the commission had held eight plenary meetings and several working groups.
She added that the Pope had endorsed the commission’s recommendations, “which will require significant culture change and time to be implemented in practice”, and that much of the responsibility lay with local bishops rather than the Pope.
Central to the reforms is a new panel, established by the Pope last September, which hears evidence when bishops are accused of failing to act. The Pope can then decide whether to remove the bishop.
Baroness Hollins wrote: “There is now a process for collecting the evidence and putting a considered case to the Pope so that he can make an informed decision about an errant bishop.”
But Mr Saunders, a member of the commission currently on a leave of absence, wrote: “Francis has done more than his predecessor, but it still is not enough.” He noted recent reports of a clerical abuser being reinstated, commenting: “As long as such outrages continue, it is hard to take the Pope’s commitment seriously.”
After criticising Pope Francis’s commitment to reform last year, Mr Saunders went on a leave of absence. Cardinal Seán O’Malley, one of the Pope’s cardinal advisers, suggested that Mr Saunders leave the commission and instead lead a “victims and survivors’ consultative panel”.
Mr Saunders has previously said that he would like to lead the panel, but is unwilling to leave the commission.
In his letter to the Guardian, Mr Saunders said he had been “unilaterally disinvited from future meetings” because of his “speaking truth to power”.
He accused the Vatican of not releasing records of priestly abuse to the police.
In a follow-up letter, Baroness Hollins said Mr Saunders had a point that the commission’s work might be “too slow and too late”. However, she wrote: “The Pope has instructed Church leaders to have zero tolerance of abusers and of those who cover up crimes of abuse.
“For many years bishops have been advised to cooperate fully with civil authorities on matters of child abuse. That some still fail to do so is a matter of huge concern.”
Baroness Hollins said that “cultural change” was necessary in solving the problems, and that “leaders – mainly men – find it hard both to listen to survivors and to learn from other countries’ errors, perhaps thinking it doesn’t apply to them.
“How wrong they are.”
Cardinal to crown Fatima statue
Cardinal Vincent Nichols will crown a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and consecrate England to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at a Mass in Westminster Cathedral on February 18.
The consecration will be a renewal of the original made by Cardinal Bernard Griffin in 1948. The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue, an image of Our Lady of Fatima, will be venerated along with relics of the Fatima seers. The apparitions of Our Lady first appeared in Portugal 100 years ago.
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