Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

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The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors , also known colloquially as the Pontifical or Vatican Child Protection Commission , was established by Pope Francis in 2014 to protect children and young people from sexual abuse and physical abuse and has been in operation since 2015.

prehistory

Since 2010, numerous cases and allegations of physical abuse and sexual abuse of children and young people in the Roman Catholic Church have become increasingly known. Under the impression of this development and on the recommendation of the Council of Cardinals , Pope Francis, elected in 2013, decided to set up a special commission for the prevention and processing of such crimes. This happened in 2014, in the following year the statutes of the new body were established and this began its practical work.

Foundation and task

On March 22, 2014, Pope Francis established the commission based in Vatican City . It is to cooperate with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith . The first chairman was the Archbishop of Boston , Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFMCap . The commission is entitled to request reports on the effectiveness of child protection measures and to submit proposals to the Pope by a two-thirds majority . You can have a maximum of 18 people as members; As of May 8, 2015, there were 17 people, including psychotherapists , social workers , abuse victims , theologians and legal experts . The members are appointed by the Pope for an initial three years and are to meet twice a year in Italian , Spanish and English . The first conference took place from 6-7. February 2015.

Members

Some of the members of the commission were themselves abused as minors by clerics, but they decided not to make this public, but to bring this experience exclusively to the commission.

history

The papal child protection commission has already expressed itself several times to protect minors from physical and sexual abuse inside and outside the Roman Catholic Church , partly in agreement with its founder Pope Francis, partly also with criticism of his behavior.

2014: Action against Bishop Robert Finn

In 2014, Commission Chairman O'Malley sat down with Pope Francis for the removal of the Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph , the bishop ordained by Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke , and Benedict XVI. the local bishop appointed Opus Dei member Robert Finn , a. This was in September 2012 to two years' imprisonment sentenced on probation because he in 2010 to child pornography manufacturing diocesan priest Shawn Ratigan by temporarily ignoring the punitive duty of disclosure for sexual offenses had covered. On April 21, 2015, Francis accepted Finn's resignation, whose dismissal had already been unsuccessfully requested by Catholics in his diocese and victims' associations during the previous pontificate .

2015: Papal pronouncements on the chastening of children

In February 2015, the commission criticized Pope Francis for his statement that beating children is "justifiable if the child's dignity is preserved". Commissioner and abuse victim Peter Saunders replied that there is no place for corporal punishment in our time. Chairman Cardinal O'Malley announced advice to the Pope from the commission, saying that it also addressed the physical abuse of children ; a separate working group within the commission deals with this. In May 2015, the Pope reiterated his controversial statements.

2015: Sexual abuse in canon law

In April 2015, the commission suggested to the Council of Cardinals to include the cover-up of sexual abuse by bishops as a separate criminal offense in canon law . A list of sanctions and rules of procedure are missing, which means that the cases against bishops have so far reached the Pope directly. The proposal was approved by Pope Francis. As a result, a judicial commission was set up in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct proceedings against bishops accused of abuse of office.

2015: Dissociation from information provided by Commissioner Peter Saunders

In June 2015, the commission distanced itself from statements made by its member Peter Saunders, who is himself a victim of sexual abuse. In May 2015, Commissioner Peter Saunders called the Australian Cardinal George Pell AC "untenable for the Vatican" and accused him of covering up abuse cases and covering up the perpetrators as Archbishop of the Archbishopric of Sydney and Melbourne . Saunders also described the cardinal as "cold, hard-hearted and almost sociopathic " and advised Pope Francis to remove Pell from his offices.

While George Pell threatened Saunders legal action, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi Pell defended against Saunders' allegations. Lombardi said that it was not up to the Commission to investigate and issue judgments on individual cases; Saunders do not speak for this. The Commission confirmed the latter. Pell denied having offered hush money to the nephew and victim of convicted pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in order to have the allegations made against the perpetrator withdrawn.

2017: Marie Collins leaves

In March 2017, Irish anti-pedophile Marie Collins , herself a victim of sexual abuse, left the commission. She justified her step with the - so Collins - "resistance of some members of the Curia" against their activities; the lack of willingness to cooperate on the part of the dicastery most concerned with abuse cases is scandalous. Pope Francis accepted the resignation. At the request of the head of the commission, Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, she wants to cooperate externally with the institution in the future. She has not been a victim of abuse since Collins left. The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , Gerhard Ludwig Müller , on the other hand, defended the behavior of the Congregation. Their support is not the task of the abuse commission.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vatican: Statutes of the Child Protection Commission published . Vatican Radio , May 8, 2015
  2. ↑ "The processing is only just beginning" . Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 27, 2014
  3. ↑ a b Vatican takes Curial Cardinal Pell under protection . kath.net from June 1, 2015
  4. ↑ Open letter from Pope Francis: There is no place in the church for abusers . German Bishops' Conference , translation from L'Osservatore Romano of February 13, 2015
  5. ↑ press.vatican.va: Comunicato della Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori, February 17, 2018
  6. ↑ a b Gudrun Sailer: Vatican: Erfurt canon lawyer advises Pope on the subject of child protection. Vatican News of February 17, 2018
  7. ↑ Laurie Goodstein: Robert Finn, Missouri Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest, Resigns . The New York Times , April 21, 2015
  8. ^ David Gibson: Cardinal O'Malley's warning shot about Bishop Finn is just the start. Washington Post November 17, 2015
  9. ^ Pontifical Commission criticizes Franziskus Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , February 9, 2015
  10. ↑ Julius Müller-Meiningen: Pope defends "slaps on the buttocks" . Mittelbayerische Zeitung of May 29, 2015
  11. ↑ Child Protection Commission: "Punish cover-up" . ORF , June 3, 2015
  12. ^ Vatican founds tribunal for abuse allegations . Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 11, 2015
  13. ↑ Elisabetta Povoledo, Laurie Goodstein: Pope Creates Tribunal for Bishop Negligence in Child Sexual Abuse Cases. In: nytimes.com. June 11, 2015, accessed May 28, 2016 .
  14. ↑ a b Pell case: 'No comment' from the Vatican Commission . Vatican Radio from June 3, 2015
  15. ↑ Vatican chief financial officer Pell due to child abuse scandal under pressure . Berliner Zeitung , June 1, 2015
  16. ^ Pontifical Commission without Victims of Abuse. The standard of March 2, 2017
  17. ↑ "Church does not pass worldly judgment". Domradio from March 3, 2017

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