(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.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.
Text from Vatican Radio website
Comments