Vatican commission’s report is first-ever evaluation of church’s efforts to address crisis of sexual abuse by clergy.
Published On 29 Oct 2024
The Catholic Church needto permit victims of sexual abuse by its clergy the right to payment and make it simpler to getridof priests, the Vatican’s kid security commission states in its veryfirst yearly report.
The 50-page report, released on Tuesday, is the first-ever worldwide evaluation of the church’s efforts to address the crisis of sexual abuse within its ranks.
For years, the church hasactually been shaken by scandals throughout the world including paedophile priests and the cover-up of their criminalactivities, damaging its trustworthiness and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, set up by Pope Francis a years ago, stated the church was coming out of a “dark duration” in which “church leaders unfortunately stoppedworking those we are called to shepherd”.
US Cardinal Sean O’Malley, a previous archbishop of Boston who invested years listening to abuse survivors, stated at a news conference a brand-new duration hasactually started “where responsibility, care and issue for victims is start to bring light to the darkness”.
The commission stressedout “the value of payment for victims/survivors, as a concrete dedication to their recovery journey” and vowed to work “so that standardised and understood treatments are established in a more thorough method”.
There needto be a clear policy on settlement that is not just monetary, it stated, however which likewise acknowledges “mistakes, [gives] public apologies”.
The commission stated it wou