Catholic Church is failing abuse victims, Vatican panel says

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -The Vatican's child protection commission accused senior Catholic leaders on Thursday of being too slow to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and implement new safeguarding efforts in an unusually critical internal report on the issue.

For decades, the 1.4-billion-member Church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving abuse and cover-up, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The new report, only the second by a commission founded over a decade ago, faulted Church leaders for not providing information to victims about how their reports of abuse were being handled, or whether negligent bishops had been sanctioned.

It also said the commission's own requests for information about safeguarding protocols had not always been answered and the Italian Church had failed to provide full details.

"In many cases ... victims/survivors report that the Church has responded with empty settlements, performative gestures, and a persistent refusal to engage with victims/survivors in good faith," said the report.

One long-time advocate for victims praised the new document. "This report should serve as a wake-up call to Pope Leo," said Anne Barrett Doyle of the group Bishop Accountability, which has tracked Catholic clergy abuse for decades.

COMMISSION CRITICAL OF CHURCH LEADERS

The Vatican commission, created by the late Pope Francis in 2014, had been roiled by the resignations of several of its members over the years and only issued its first annual report last year.

The new report, spanning 103 pages, is the commission's most substantial text yet and is frequently critical of Church leadership, without naming individuals. 

Its main subject is the issue of reparations for abuse victims, but it also evaluates the Church's safeguarding efforts across 22 countries and in one senior Vatican department.

The department surveyed is the Dicastery for Evangelization, a sprawling operation that is responsible for overseeing the Church's operations in most developing nations.

The report said the dicastery has only one official tasked with handling issues of safeguarding. It also said that a lack of clarity in distribution of work on abuse cases with other Vatican departments "can create confusion and delays in initiating investigations and handling complaints."

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the head writer of the report, suggested the Vatican had not devoted enough resources to its safeguarding initiatives.

"Resources is a major issue," de Boer-Buquicchio, a Dutch jurist and commission member, told a press conference. "It's a matter of availability of funding and the scarcity of funding is a reality everywhere."

ITALY'S BISHOPS DID NOT FULLY COOPERATE WITH PANEL

Among the countries evaluated by the new report was Italy, long a Catholic bastion that has been slow to address abuse by clergy.

The report criticizes the country's bishops for not working closely with the Vatican commission, saying that a questionnaire about safeguarding practices sent by the group to all of Italy's 226 Catholic dioceses was only answered by 81 of them.

South Korea, another country evaluated, had 100% participation.

The Italian Bishops Conference spokesperson said it would issue a full statement later in the day, but that some bishops had already communicated with the Vatican before the requests were received.

CITES LACK OF TRANSPARENCY OVER BISHOP REMOVALS

The anti-abuse commission is the first of its kind in the Catholic Church. Francis, who died in April, made addressing abuse by clergy a priority of his 12-year papacy, with mixed results.

Pope Leo, elected in May to replace Francis, has met with commission members several times and appointed a new president for the group, a French archbishop, in July. The Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the new report would alter Pope Leo's approach to the issue.

While Francis created a global system for Catholics to report suspicions of abuse or cover-ups by bishops, abuse survivors and advocates have called for a global zero-tolerance policy for priests accused of abuse.

"The lack of accountability for Church leaders was a frequent issue raised by victims/survivors," said the report, which also criticised the Vatican for not making clear when bishops are removed from office for issues related to abuse or cover-up.

"The Commission emphasizes the importance of publicly communicating the reasons for resignation and/or removal, when the decision is related to cases of abuse or negligence."

(Reporting by Joshua McElweeEditing by Alexandra Hudson and Philippa Fletcher)