A former member of Pope Francis’ commission on clergy sexual abuse said the recent revision of the criminal section of the Catholic Church’s canon law do not go far enough to protect children and vulnerable adults from possible predators. Marie Collins pointed out that the new provisions do not mandate that a priest found guilty Read more
Clericalism is coming to an end, says Marie Collins, who is a clergy sexual abuse survivor from Ireland. However, Vatican officials needed “a safeguarding policy” in place ages ago to prevent abuse and address it when it occurs. Collins says a policy of this sort was promised at the Vatican summit on child protection in Read more
A clerical sexual abuse survivor calls a summit on child protection that will take place at the Vatican Feb. 21-24, involving presidents of all bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the pope’s own top aides, a “last chance” for the Vatican to be taken seriously. “If this 2019 meeting ends with nothing more Read more
History will judge whether Pope Francis’s response to clerical abuse was appropriate, says Marie Collins. Collins, who is a clerical abuse survivor and former member of Francis’ papal commission on clergy sexual abuse, says while she believes Francis has good intentions in fighting abuse she is looking for actions as well. Rather than telling us Read more
Church-abuse-survivor, Marie Collins, says she’s shocked that Pope Francis dropped a Kiwi from his sex-abuse inquiry. Ms Collins resigned her membership of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. She says she left in frustration last March at what she saw as a lack of progress. The commission’s 3-year term ended late last year. Read more
Pope Francis has renewed the mandate of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors two months after the Commission became inactive. During his recent trip to South America, Pope Francis addressed concerns about the expiry of the Commission’s mandate, saying the time taken to nominate members to the body was normal. He has reappointed Read more
A Chilean sex-abuse victim will be interviewed personally by the Vatican’s sex-crimes expert, Archbishop Charles Scicluna. Scicluna will travel to New York next week to interview the victim, Juan Carlos Cruz. The victim is at the centre of a scandal involving Pope Francis. Cruz says a letter he wrote in 2015 asking Pope Francis to Read more
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 Read more
Editor’s note: Marie Collins of Ireland is a clergy sexual abuse survivor who resigned March 1 from Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview shortly following Collins’ resignation. Collins has written an open letter to Read more
Clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins, resigned from the Pope’s panel on clerical sex abuse a fortnight ago. She cited “shameful” resistance within the Vatican to the group’s efforts to protect children. Collins has now written an open letter about her resignation to Cardinal Gerhard Müller. In it she responded to an interview he gave an Read more