Vatican City, Oct 16 (AP) The Vatican's child protection commission emphasized the Catholic Church's moral responsibility to aid survivors of clergy sexual abuse, highlighting financial reparations and making applicable sanctions against perpetrators and their accomplices as necessary actions.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, in its second annual report, addressed the sensitive issue of reparations. This is a challenging topic for the church due to its financial, reputational, and legal repercussions for its hierarchy.
The report was notably an official Vatican document, crafted with contributions from 40 abuse survivors worldwide, and expressed their grievances about the church's mishandling of their cases, alongside their requirements for healing.
Monetary settlements, the report stated, were necessary to offer victims essential therapy and other resources to assist their recovery from the trauma of abuse.
However, the church's duty extends beyond financial settlements; it owes a significant debt to victims, the broader community, and God. The hierarchy must actively listen to victims, offering them spiritual and pastoral support. Church leaders need to apologize, explain how they are addressing the wrongdoers, and outline preventive measures for future safeguarding, the report declared.
"The church bears a moral and spiritual obligation to heal the deep wounds inflicted from sexual violence perpetrated, enabled, mishandled, or covered up by anyone holding a position of authority in the church," the report stated.
Pope Leo Signals Dedication to Commission
The report spans the period before the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in history. Pope Leo acknowledged the abuse scandal as an ongoing "crisis" and stressed that victims require more than financial reparations for healing.
He has shown commitment to the commission, initially created by Pope Francis in 2014, aimed at guiding the church on optimal practices for abuse prevention. The commission faced initial challenges but has started gaining footholds within the Vatican's bureaucratic environment. In July, Pope Leo appointed a new president, French Bishop Thibault Verny.
During the report's launch, Verny emphasized the commission's belief in involving victims in creating a preventative culture within the church.
The report was assembled with input from victims who listed priorities like accountability for church leaders, transparency about their cases, true structural reforms, and effective prevention strategies.
"The commission is committed to saying to victims and survivors: We want to be by your side," Verny stated.
A Legal Process That Re-Traumatizes
The 2024 report also critiqued the church's internal handling of abuse cases, which is described as a secretive process that lacks tangible accountability and can re-traumatize victims.
"We must re-emphasize that the church's decades-long pattern of mishandling reports, including abandoning, ignoring, shaming, blaming, and stigmatizing victims/survivors, perpetuates the trauma as ongoing harm," the report claimed.
It was a critique of the church's dysfunction under its canonical laws, where the harshest punishment for a serial abuser priest often amounts to dismissal.
The secrecy around the process means victims have limited knowledge beyond the outcome, which might take years. Their limited recourse often means making their stories public, which can be traumatizing once again.
The report advocated for penalties that are "tangible and commensurate with the severity of the crime." Although laicization can happen for priests who commit heinous acts, the church often hesitates to dismiss clergy entirely, frequently opting for lesser sanctions like temporary retreat from active ministry.
Even when bishops are removed due to their mishandling, the public typically only learns that they have "retired." The report urged for clear communication regarding removal or resignation reasons.
Auditing Practices Across Regions
The report includes an audit of child protection procedures in over a dozen countries and across two religious orders, a lay movement, and one Vatican office.
It observed that the Vatican's missionary evangelization office, covering Africa, Asia, and developing regions, has the necessary resources to manage abuse cases.
However, only a "small number of cases" reach Rome, suggesting that reporting and management of abuse in Africa and Asia lag significantly behind Western nations.
The report noted that the missionary office dealt with just two cases involving bishops' mismanagement, a surprisingly low figure given the vastness of their jurisdiction.
This data indicates that the Vatican faces a considerable challenge in areas where abuse, particularly same-sex abuse, remains taboo and where the church grapples with broader societal challenges like conflict and poverty. (AP)
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