Parts of the Roman Catholic Church are still failing to ensure clerical sexual abuse is reported adequately, Pope Francis’ commission for child protection said Tuesday, raising concerns about a “lack of transparency” in the Vatican’s handling of cases.
In its first annual report, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors surveyed safeguarding protocols from bishops in 17 different parts of the world, along with how the Church’s central administration processes cases.
“At times, the commission found a troubling lack of reporting structures and victim/survivor accompaniment services,” the report said. “The commission found a persistent concern regarding the transparency in the Roman Curia’s (the church’s central administration) procedures and juridical processes. The commission notes that this will continue to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community,” it added.
The report includes several recommendations including compensation for survivors, a special “procurator” to represent victims, and for the pope to write an encyclical letter on the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
It also comes after Francis’ trip to Belgium where he faced strong criticism for the church’s handling of abuse and where both King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for more concrete action.
At a news conference in the Vatican to launch the report, Cardinal O’Malley began by thanking survivors for speaking out and dedicated the report to them. He admitted “there is still much needing to be done,” expressed frustration about the slow pace of change but insisted the church is on “a journey towards a transparent and accountable ministry of safeguarding.”
Joining him on the panel was Juan-Carlos Cruz, an abuse survivor for Chile and member of the Pontifical commission, who said the release of the report is an “important first step” in on-going efforts to tackle abuse in the church. He also thanked Pope Francis for “caring for survivors” and being invested in tackling the problem.
On the lack of transparency in the Vatican’s handling of abuse, Cruz said that “not giving information to survivors” and having “opaque” investigations is a form of “re-trauma” to survivors. He pointed out that the commission’s report had made recommendations to tackle this.
The production of the report was led by Maud de Boer Buquicchio, a former UN special rapporteur on the sexual exploitation of children and a member of the commission that was set up by the pope in 2014. Francis asked the commission two years ago to produce an annual report on child protection initiatives which he wanted to help bring “transparency and accountability” on abuse.
The report looked at Papua New Guinea, one of the countries that the pope visited last month, finding that the bishops of Papua New Guinea and the neighboring Solomon Islands have “inadequate provision for different types of victim/survivor support services” and that “victims/survivors do not play a direct role in the formulation of Church safeguarding policy.”
Meanwhile, in Cameroon, the commission found that “cultural challenges engender a hesitation to address the problem of abuse head-on” and that “this hesitation is shared by some church authorities.”
The commission’s report includes criticisms of the Vatican office responsible for dealing with clerical sexual abuse cases, saying a lack of transparency and lengthy procedures “can be a source of re-traumatization” of victims. It said this body, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, had only “publicly shared limited statistical information on its activities.” And when it came to the Vatican office responsible for clergy, the report cited a concern that “psychological assessments” for future priests “may be downplayed in the vetting procedures.”
The report also cites concerns about anti-abuse procedures inside the church’s global charitable arm, Caritas, and citing the case of Luk Delft, who CNN reported was accused of abusing children while director of Caritas in the Central African Republic.
The Vatican commission for protecting minors is led by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the retired Archbishop of Boston, who has taken a significant role in the church’s response to the scourge of clerical sexual abuse. Although the report highlights several concerns about how abuse is being handled, it says there are “many other instances, the Commission was deeply encouraged by the robust and professional safeguarding regime.”