16 March 2017

America Magazine: Marie Collins challenges top Vatican cardinal and sexual abuse commission

The clash between a former member of Pope Francis' sex abuse advisory commission and the Vatican heated up on Tuesday, as prominent Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins challenged a top Vatican cardinal over his claims that his office had cooperated with the commission.

In an open letter, Collins pressed her case that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had ignored or scuttled commission proposals to protect children and care for abuse victims that had been approved by the pope. [...]

Collins resigned from the commission on March 1 citing the "unacceptable" lack of cooperation from Mueller's office, which processes canonical cases against pedophile priests. Her departure left the commission without any abuse survivors and dealt another blow to Francis' record on combatting sex abuse. [...]

In her reply published in the National Catholic Reporter, Collins expressed shock that Mueller considered the tribunal a mere proposal, noting that when the Vatican announced that the pope had approved it on June 10, 2015, the official statement said Francis had already authorized resources to fund it and that adequate personnel and a secretary would be appointed.

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