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Bishops should be held accountable if they don’t report suspected sex abuse or protect children from paedophile priests, a pontifical commission says.
The new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held its first meeting from May 1-3 at the Vatican.
Commission head Cardinal Sean O’Malley says a person’s rank in the Church should lead to special treatment or protection.
“Our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with superiors in the Church who have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” he said.
The board will draw up protocols for the Pope to consider.
Cardinal O’Malley says they will lead to an open process that will hold people accountable to their responsibility to protect children around the world.
But some still think this area is not a universal problem, the cardinal said.
“In many people’s minds it is an American problem, an Irish problem or a German problem,” he said.
“The Church has to face it is everywhere in the world. There is so much denial. The Church has to respond to make the Church safe for children.”
“There are a lot of people who think it’s limited to certain countries and that it’s been dealt with and now we can move on to something else and that is simply not true,” he said.
“The Church needs to always be reviewing what we have done, trying to improve what we have done, monitoring what we have done because it’s possible to have beautiful policies, but if they are not implemented, it’s only window dressing.”
“We will propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility around the world and the mutual sharing of ‘best practices’ for the protection of all minors, including programs for training, education, formation and responses to abuse.”
Clerical abuse survivor and commission member Marie Collins met Pope Francis twice during the meeting.
It is believed this is the first time Pope Francis has met with an abuse victim.
Last month, Pope Francis sought forgiveness for the “evil” committed by priests who molested children.
Sources
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