Pope Francis Names His Anti-Abuse Team

[rug]

Pope Francis named Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley, a psychotherapist, and four women—one of them raped by a priest—to deal with child abuse in the Catholic Church.

03.23.14
Barbie Latza Nadeau

Some things are worth the wait. At least that is the hope when it comes to Pope Francis’s surprisingly well-rounded new commission appointed to deal with the ongoing priest sex abuse problem in the global Catholic Church. The commission, announced Saturday by the Holy See press office, is made up of four women, one of whom is a victim of sex abuse by a priest, and four men – only three of whom are clerics.

The highest-ranking church official on the commission is Cardinal Sean O’Malley who was a front-runner in the papal conclave that finally elected Pope Francis a year ago.

The other clerics are an Argentine priest Pope Francis shepherded through the Jesuit ranks in his home country and a German priest who is also a licensed psychotherapist. According to Vatican spokesperson Father Thomas Rosica, the Argentine, Humberto Miguel Yáñez, is a professor of moral theology who spearheaded the Symposium on the Sex Abuse of Minors two years ago. German Hans Zollner leads the Centre for Child Protection at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

The more surprising members of the group are the female members. Marie Collins is a married Irish woman who was raped at the age of 13 by a priest. She is an activist for child safety within the Catholic Church and has been vocal about how she was snubbed by her local parish and told to “protect the priest’s good name” when she accused him. Francis also appointed noted French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, who has written extensively about child sex abuse, and Baroness Sheila Hollins from the United Kingdom who is an expert in mental health.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/23/pope-francis-names-his-anti-abuse-team.html

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. Naming such a team seems to indicate he takes the problem seriously

Would that we had seen something like it under JPII or Benedict.

[TommyCelt]

2. Pope Francis needed to walk back...

...the recent cautious, Church-defensive comments he made regarding the abuse scandal. Naming Cardinal Sean and the commission of laypeople certainly does that. I'd like to see more action on bringing the enabling bishops/superiors who have shuffled predators around to task. However, I do understand our Church needs her mechanisms in place for that. I certainly think naming Marie Collins - not only an abuse survivor, but an activist - to the commission portends such action.

I'm more hopeful than I was. The Holy Father's aforementioned cautious "protect the Church"-type comments had me admittedly a bit disconcerted.

[goldent]

3. Looks good, but we'll have to see how it comes out in the end.

[okasha]

4. It looks very good.

It also looks as if Francis took the time to do this right instead of heeding the folks who faulted him for not resolving the issue before sunset the day he was elected.