The statement from the commission set up to advise Pope Francis on best practice in the fight against child sexual abuse came after its most recent meeting in Rome.

In order to comply with one of the Pope's goals for the commission, that of promoting local responsibility, members have been "actively in contact" with bishops' conferences and others.

"Over the past year or so, commission members have met with bishops and child protection authorities in: Philippines, Austria, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Scotland, Poland, Central America (in Costa Rica), United States," the statement noted.

The director of the National Office for Professional Standards in New Zealand, Bill Kilgallon, is a member of the 17-person commission.

A workshop conducted by commission members last year in the Philippines saw that nation's bishops create a child safeguarding office.

The commission's statement added that it is preparing to ask Pope Francis to remind all bishops of the importance of responding personally to abuse victims and survivors who approach them.

The commission stated it is preparing to ask the Pope to institute a "Universal Day of Prayer" as well as a penitential liturgy for the crime of sexual abuse.

In upcoming months, commission members say they'll hold workshops on the legal aspects of the protection of minors.

This will be with the goal of promoting more transparent Church trials.

Another goal is the establishment of a website to facilitate sharing of best practices for the protection of minors around the world.

The September, 2016, meeting of the commission will have a strategic focus on safeguarding minors in Catholic schools.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Crux
• NZCBC
• Image: World for Travel

In an interview with French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Gerhard Müller called the notion "absolutely anti-Catholic".

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the idea does not respect the catholicity of the Church.

"Episcopal conferences have authority over certain issues, but not a magisterium alongside the Magisterium, without the Pope and without communion with the bishops," Cardinal Müller said.

He also responded to recent remarks by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German bishops' conference.

Cardinal Marx argued that the German bishops were "not just a subsidiary of Rome" and needed to set their own policies on marriage and the family.

Cardinal Marx said: "Each episcopal conference is responsible for the pastoral care in their culture and has to proclaim the Gospel in its own unique way.

"We cannot wait until a synod states something, as we have to carry out marriage and family ministry here."

In a translation published on the Rorate Caeli blog, Cardinal Müller said "an episcopal conference is not a particular council, even less so an ecumenical council".

"The president of an episcopal conference is nothing more than a technical moderator, and he does not have any particular magisterial authority due to this title."

Cardinal Müller said hearing that an "episcopal conference is not a ‘branch of Rome' gives me the occasion to recall that dioceses are not the branches of the secretariat of a bishops' conference either, nor of the diocese whose bishop presides over the episcopal conference".

"This kind of attitude risks in fact the reawakening of a certain polarisation between the local Churches and the Church universal, out of date since the Vatican I and Vatican II councils.

"The Church is not a sum of national churches, whose presidents would vote to elect their chief on the universal level."

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Rorate Caeli
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Catholic News Agency