![\"Pope](\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/francis.jpg?resize=600%2C450\")
<\/p>\nThe Vatican is \u2018All Words, No Action\u2019 on Addressing Child Sex Abuse<\/b><\/p>\n
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When Pope Francis named two victims of clergy sexual abuse to a new Vatican commission on the protection of minors in 2014, some observers took it as a sign that the pope was getting serious about the issue.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But Marie Collins says there was still some skepticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people felt that I was just being asked [to join] the commission as a sort of token survivor,\u201d says Collins, who was sexually abused as a child by a Catholic priest in Ireland. \u201cI wanted to be sure that the commission was sincere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins went ahead and joined the Vatican commission. If there was a chance for finding solutions to this problem in the Catholic Church, she wanted to be part of it.<\/p>\n
Nearly three years later, however, Collins decided she had to resign. She officially stepped down from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on March 1, which was also Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Collins says the work being done by the members of the commission to protect children and vulnerable adults, and to find justice for survivors like herself, is all very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone on the commission [was] working very hard for that,\u201d Collins says. \u201cThat was good. But the response from the Vatican, not so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a written statement about her decision<\/a> to step down from the commission, Collins said, \u201cI find it impossible to listen to public statements about the deep concern in the Church for the care of those whose lives have been blighted by abuse, yet to watch privately as a congregation in the Vatican refuses to even acknowledge their letters!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a reflection of how this whole abuse crisis in the Church has been handled: with fine words in public and contrary actions behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins says the Vatican bureaucracy was slow to fund the commission\u2019s work and to grant access to officials, and that she is not entirely sure why.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still those in the Vatican,\u201d Collins says, \u201cthat have the old attitudes and the old views towards anyone coming in from the outside, as they would see it, telling them what to do. They don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough the pope has backed initiatives put forward by the commission, they haven\u2019t actually turned into reality. So, what we have now still is words and no actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Some leaders within the Vatican want things to change, says Paul Vallely, author of \u201cPope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Among them, Vallely says, is Cardinal Sean O\u2019Malley, who is the archbishop of Boston and the head of the Vatican commission on protecting minors. \u201cHe\u2019s working pretty hard behind the scenes to get movement, but he\u2019s being blocked by other people in the Vatican,\u201d Vallely says.<\/p>\n Vallely adds that there is a risk in the approach taken by Pope Francis. On the one hand, the pope has talked about \u201czero tolerance\u201d for Catholic clergy who\u2019ve sexually abused children.<\/p>\n \u201cHe talks about setting up a tribunal to discipline bishops who fail to act on abuser priests. But then, he doesn\u2019t actually enforce these things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Particularly egregious to some observers, Vallely says, was the appointment by Pope Francis of a bishop in Chile with a dubious record when it comes to child abuse. That sort of thing, Vallely says, does not amount to \u201czero tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n The Vatican commission on child protection is expected to continue its work. In addition to Collins, the second member who was also a victim of sex<\/a> abuse is Peter Saunders. But he was put on a leave of absence after having disagreements with his fellow commission members\u00a0and becoming increasingly critical of Pope Francis.<\/p>\n Vallely says Pope Francis could decide to take the recommendations from the commission\u00a0and implement them. For example, he says the pope could tell Vatican authorities to put members of the Catholic clergy suspected of sexual abuse of children in front of new tribunals.<\/p>\n But so far, that does not appear to be happening.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lots of things he could do, if he wanted to act decisively on this, as he has in other areas of his papacy,\u201d Vallely says.<\/p>\n The foot-dragging inside the Vatican could be about politics, turf wars\u00a0or resistance to the pope, says Collins, the former commission member, adding, \u201cMaybe [Pope Francis] could have been stronger.\u201d But in any case, she says the holdup is simply unacceptable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any accountability really. You\u2019ve seen one or two people maybe being allowed to resign, but even then, it\u2019s all to avoid scandal. You don\u2019t see people removed, and I\u2019m talking about bishops.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s depressing, it\u2019s dispiriting, it\u2019s frustrating. In 2017, it should not be still happening,\u201d Collins says. \u201cAccountability is the main issue, because if there\u2019s some consequence for not protecting children properly, then you might see better protection.\u201d<\/p>\n This article first appeared on PRI The World<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post The Vatican is \u2018All Words, No Action\u2019 on Addressing Child Sex Abuse<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n