Marie Collins was abused as a child by a priest while she was growing up in Ireland in the 1960s. As an adult, she has long campaigned for the protection of children and for justice for victims of clerical pedophilia.
On Saturday, Pope Francis named her and seven other people to a new panel to help the Catholic Church combat sexual abuse of minors by clerics.
The formation of a group of experts, initially announced in December, comes just over a month after the United Nations accused the Vatican of putting the church’s reputation before the well-being of children and imposing a “code of silence” among clerics on the issue of sexual abuse.
Francis has called sexual abuse of children “the shame of the Church” and has vowed to continue procedures put in place by his predecessor, Benedict XVI. But he seemed to pay less attention to abuse than to other reforms. Defensive testimony by Vatican officials before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child in January set off a wave of criticism that he was not bold enough on the issue.
Pope Francis appoints former child victim to church group on sex abuse
Last edited {1}
Attachments
Images (1)
Comments (0)