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| Pope Francis arrives for an audience to the Pilgrims from the Diocese of Lodz on April 28, 2022 at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) |
Pope Francis said Friday changes to an advisory body on preventing sexual abuse represented a fresh start in the fight against paedophile priests, but conceded โmuch remains to be doneโ.
The pope in March moved the Commission for the Protection of Minors into the Vaticanโs powerful doctrine office, which oversees the churchโs investigations of abuse cases, in a bid to give it the institutional power critics said it was lacking.
The reform โmarks a new beginningโ, the 85-year-old told commission members at the conclusion of their plenary meeting Friday.
It also signalled a further push in the popeโs efforts to restore trust in the Catholic Church over a scourge which has plagued it globally.
He ordered the commission to draw up a โreliableโ annual report on the churchโs initiatives on protecting minors, which he said was essential for โtransparency and accountabilityโ, and he hoped would โprovide a clear audit of our progress in this effortโ.
โWithout that progress, the faithful will continue to lose trust,โ he said.
Francis directly addressed fears the change in status could weaken the papal advisory body, which was created in 2014 and often found itself at odds with the Vaticanโs doctrine office.
โSomeone might think that this could put at risk your freedom of thought and action, or even take away importance from the issue with which you deal,โ he said.
โThat is not my intention, nor is it my expectation. And I invite you to be watchful that this does not happen.โ
Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clerical abuse who served on the commission before resigning in 2017 over the churchโs handling of the crisis, said in March the change meant the advisory body had โofficially lost even a semblance of independenceโ.
The commission remains โindependentโ, the pope insisted Friday, repeating the word twice.
He said it was up to the commission to make sure โevery sectorโ of the church protected minors and looked after victims of abuse.
โCases of the abuse of minors by members of the clergy have decreased for several years now in those parts of the world where data and reliable resources are available,โ he said.
โYet much remains to be done.โ
