The Catholic Church must do a better job of handling compensation for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, the Vatican’s child protection commission said in its first annual report on Tuesday
The church has been shaken by scandals across the world for decades, involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes.
These scandals have damaged the church’s credibility and costed it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
The commission said compensation went beyond money and included “a much broader spectrum of actions.”
This includes acknowledging mistakes, public apologies and other forms of true fraternal closeness to victims-survivors.
The commission said it would delve deeper into the issue of reparations in its report next year.
Pope Francis faced criticism over clergy abuse during a visit to Belgium in September. (Reuters: Yves Herman)
Pope Francis set up the anti-abuse commission in 2013.
He faced some of the strongest criticism over clergy abuse during a September visit to Belgium, where the king and prime minister called for more help for victims.
A Vatican summit of world bishops this month ended with a final text apologising several times for the “untold and ongoing” pain suffered by Catholics abused by clergy.
Tuesday’s report called for greater transparency, with victims given more access to documents relating to them.
It said investigations and trials by the Vatican’s doctrine office (DDF) were too slow and secretive.
Colombian Bishop and commission secretary Luis Manuel Ali Herrera said “the lack of communication” during meetings with victims “was a permanent constant complaint”.
Chilean abuse survivor and commission member Juan Carlos Cruz said the lack of information was “a form of re-trauma for many survivors, who have no idea where their case of abuse is”.
Other recommendations included creating a Vatican Ombudsman for victims, ensuring more effective punishment of offending clergy, and an invitation for Francis to write an encyclical — the highest form of papal teaching — on child protection.
Mr Cruz says said the lack of information was re-traumatising for many survivors.
(AP Photo: Alessandra Tarantino)
Devastating realities
The anti-abuse commission is the first of its kind in the Catholic Church, but abuse survivors have accused it of being toothless.
Several of its past members have also left acrimoniously.
The commission includes priests, nuns and non-Catholics.
It was incorporated into the DDF in 2022 in an effort to increase its clout, but the report highlighted how it still struggles to make itself heard.
Cardinal O’Malley acknowledges the frustration at the slowness of change. (AFP: Vincenzo Pinto)
US Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who leads the commission, said things were getting better while acknowledging past “frustration at the slowness of change”.
Bishop Accountability abuse tracking group co-director Anne Barrett Doyle said Tuesday’s report amounted to window dressing.
“It doesn’t focus on the central and devastating realities,” she said.
“That children in the Catholic Church are still being sexually assaulted by clergy, and that universal church law still allows these priests to be reinstated if certain conditions are met.”
Reuters
