Pontifical Commission established for Protection of Minors includes women, abuse victim
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection
of Minors whose task will be to advise the Holy Father on ways to prevent abuse and
provide pastoral care for victims and their families. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of
Boston, a member of the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals, had announced on Dec.
5, 2013 that such a new commission would be formed in the coming months. At the time,
he said the new commission would continue Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to combat sex
abuse by clerics, study current child protection programs, and make suggestions for
new Vatican initiatives together with bishops’ conferences and religious orders.
Listen
to Tracey McClure's report:
Members of
the new Commission announced Saturday by the Holy See’s Press Office, include four
men and four women who will be tasked firstly, with drawing up the Statutes of the
Commission, defining "its tasks and competencies:”
The members of the Commission
include: French psychologist Catherine Bonnet; Marie Collins, an Irish victim of abuse;
British Professor Sheila Hollins, a specialist in mental health; American Cardinal
Sean Patrick O'Malley; Italian jurist Claudio Papale; Poland’s former Prime Minister
and Ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka; and the Jesuits Humberto Miguel Yanez,
a moral theologian and former pupil and collaborator of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in
Argentina and Hans Zollner, vice-rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and
Chair of the Centre for Child Protection at the University's Institute of Psychology.
Other
members will be added to the Commission in the future, chosen from various geographical
areas of the world.