Vatican's backlog of 2000 sexual abuse cases

Vatican’s backlog of 2000 sexual abuse cases

Monday, May 15th, 2017

The Vatican has admitted it has a backlog of 2000 clerical sexual abuse cases.

Despite this, Pope Francis said the Vatican is on “the right path” to resolving each of them.

Francis has always made it clear that he has “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse.

Speaking during an in-flight interview after leaving Fatima about the Vatican’s handling of sexual abuse, Francis says he has agreed for additional staff to be hired to help with the work.

There have also been new clerical and organsiational efforts made to streamline the way the cases are managed.

Both the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the chief of the doctrinal office that handles abuse cases, are looking for more people capable of dealing with these cases.

Francis said it is “a great step forward” that most dioceses around the world have protocols on how to act when accusations of abuse arise.

Bishops now know how to produce the dossier studied by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He also spoke of Marie Collins, whom he described as “a great woman”.

He agreed she was “a bit right” to complain about the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s slow pace in processing cases.

This is why the Vatican are stepping up their search for suitable people to help reduce their backlog of outstanding cases, he said.

Collins is an Irish clerical abuse survivor who resigned from his sex abuse advisory commission in March. She said she resigned because of the “unacceptable” resistance in the Vatican to implementing the group’s proposals to better care for victims and protect children.

One aspect he did not not discuss was the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s refusal to create a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests.

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