Vatican issues first report on sexual abuse, to immediate criticism
VATICAN CITY — Ten years after it was established, a Vatican commission on clerical sexual abuse issued its first report Tuesday, a limited step in self-accounting by some bishops that was immediately criticized by victims advocates as toothless and lacking independent verification.
Since the clerical abuse scandal erupted into the mainstream media two decades ago, the church has struggled to put in place effective measures around the world to end abuse and hold the church hierarchy accountable when it was involved in covering up cases.
The Vatican group, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was formed in 2014 to advise Pope Francis on how best to protect minors and vulnerable adults from sexual predators among the clergy. The pope tapped Boston Archdiocese Cardinal Sean O’Malley to lead the group.
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Last year, Francis also charged the commission with verifying that countries were following a new church law that set out rules for reporting and combating clerical sexual abuse.
The report issued Tuesday was the first time the Vatican had made public the results of its efforts to improve safeguarding policies and procedures.
The commission found that some countries demonstrated “a clear commitment to safeguarding.” Others lagged behind, in some cases showing “a troubling” lack of support for victims of abuse.
The report also called for better disciplinary measures for clerics who had erred and those who covered up transgressions, and greater transparency from the office that deals with sex abuse cases. It also affirmed the right to economic compensation.
Acknowledging the sex abuse crisis’s “incredible damage” to the church’s credibility, O’Malley described the report as a “snapshot of the journey of conversion that we have been on” toward “a transparent and accountable ministry.” But there is still “much to be done,” he said at a news conference at the Vatican on Tuesday.
Leading advocates for abuse survivors said the report did not provide the transparency that they have long demanded from the church.
“All they’re doing is collecting information from highly prejudiced sources,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, who has tracked clergy abuse over decades as a co-director of the BishopAccountability.org website.
“I think this report will simply add more smoke and obfuscation around the church’s global handling of abuse,” she said. “It’s going to create the impression that they’re now protecting children when that is absolutely not the case.”
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Other critics likened the bishops’ reports to the commission to mere homework being presented to the teacher. They said the laws did not go far enough, demanding zero tolerance for clerics who abuse and superiors who covered it up. Others said compliance was still weak.
“I can appreciate Pope Francis’ voice,” said Francesco Zanardi, founder of Italian survivors group Rete L’Abuso (the Abuse Network). But many of his bishops “don’t listen in the end.”
He called the report “a house of cards built on sand.”
In Boston, where the sexual abuse crisis exploded in the early 2000s, advocates also expressed skepticism of the report’s significance and the Vatican’s sincerity in making reparations.
“The report itself is just an academic exercise. It lacks teeth,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of child sex abuse victims and help expose the Boston Archdiocese’s coverup of clergy abuse. “The Catholic Church cannot self-police when it comes to sexual abuse and the coverup of sexual abuse. History has taught us that.”
Robert Hoatson, a former priest and sexual abuse survivor, recently demonstrated outside the Archdiocese of Boston’s Pastoral Center in Braintree to protest delays in lawsuit settlements with victims.
“The church is waiting for victims to die, and this is another example of it,” said Hoatson, president of the New Jersey-based survivor advocacy group Road to Recovery. “They’ve waited 10 years to develop something that’s not even powerful enough for victims to have trust in.”
Since its inception, the commission has faced strong criticism over its mandate, capabilities, and funding. Several high-profile members quit in protest, including two survivors of clerical abuse who had accused the Vatican of stonewalling.
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