Marie Collins, Abuse Survivor, Quits Pope’s Panel Over ‘Shameful’ Delays

[Vouthon]

nbcnews.com/news/world/marie-collins-abuse-survivor-quits-pope-s-panel-over-shameful-n727586

**Marie Collins, Abuse Survivor, Quits Pope’s Panel Over ‘Shameful’ Delays

A survivor of clerical sexual abuse has resigned from a commission established by Pope Francis aimed at stamping out the practice, saying the group’s work was being stymied by Vatican officials.

Marie Collins’ announcement Wednesday that she would step down from her role on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is sure to be a major embarrassment for the Vatican.

The commission is a key plank of the Pope’s strategy to protect children and vulnerable adults from clerical sexual abuse, according to the papal document announcing its founding.

Dublin, Ireland-born Collins was the sole remaining member of the commission who had been sexually abused by a priest.

“There have been constant setbacks. This has been directly due to the resistance by some members of the Vatican Curia to the work of the Commission,” Collins said in a statement posted online. “The lack of co-operation, particularly by the dicastery [Vatican department] most closely involved in dealing with cases of abuse, has been shameful.”

Collins however, praised Pope Francis, saying he had a “genuine” desire to tackle clerical sexual abuse, and that he had made a “sincere move” in establishing the commission…

In February last year Briton Peter Saunders, the only other member of the commission who had suffered clerical sexual abuse, resigned after making repeated criticisms of the commission’s work.**

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Is the dicastery she is referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?

 

[Vouthon]

Is the dicastery she is referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?

I’m not sure but I do find it highly significant that she “praised” Pope Francis while simultaneously casting grave aspersions upon various unnamed “Vatican officials” in the Curia whom she says have consistently blocked the work of the Commission into clerical sexual abuse.

This is categorically the polar opposite of the claims circulating in the world press a few days ago, which the AP said had originated from anonymous “Vatican officials” either in or linked to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who were placing the blame upon Pope Francis for being allegedly too lenient with paedophile priests and stymying the efforts of the Congregation to impose harsher penalties - or at least, trying to do so. The accounts are completely contradictory.

To me, it now looks as if this may have been a sort of “preemptive strike” on the part of these unnamed “Vatican officials” in view of this lady’s impending resignation and accusations against them. If so, then … it certainly doesn’t cast these officials in a good light, since it implies they may have been leaking hearsay to the press in an unjustifiably slanderous manner towards the Holy Father to deflect blame away from their own actions - which Ms Collins castigated as “shameful”.

I can’t say for sure, of course, but something rotten seems to be afoot. This is not good.

 

[Vouthon]

The latest info:

theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/01/abuse-victim-marie-collins-quits-vatican-child-protection-body

**Collins said one of the reasons she decided to resign was the Vatican’s failure to establish a tribunal recommended by the commission to hold negligent bishops to account when they ignored reports of abuse. Even though the idea was backed by Francis and announced in June 2015, it was found to have unspecified legal difficulties by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church body that primarily deals with abuse accusations…

Collins said the refusal was unacceptable. “Is this reluctance driven by internal politics, fear of change, clericalism which instills a belief that ‘they know best’ or a closed mindset which sees abuse as an inconvenience or a clinging to old institutional attitudes?” she wrote.**

“I do not know the answer but it is devastating in 2017 to see that these men still can put other concerns before the safety of children and vulnerable adults.”

Marie Collins, who was molested by a priest when she was 13 years old, said in a written statement she had made a final decision to resign after she learned that a Vatican department was failing to comply with a basic new recommendation that all correspondence from victims and survivors should receive a response.

“I learned in a letter from this particular [congregation] last month that they are refusing to do so,” Collins wrote in a searing statement to the National Catholic Reporter.

“I 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."

She added: “It 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.”…

For years since her 2014 appointment to the commission, she has been critical of the church’s slow response to issues around clerical sex abuse but has stood by the work of the commission and the pope’s commitment to coming to grips with the problem.

But on Wednesday, Collins, an Irish national, described a church bureaucracy that was unwilling to cooperate with a commission that had not been provided with enough resources, had inadequate support staff and faced intense cultural resistance within the church despite having had the backing of the pope.

“I have come to the point where I can no longer be sustained by hope. As a survivor I have watched events unfold with dismay,” Collins said in her statement.

.

So it now appears that it was the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

 

[Vouthon]

Read:

catholicreview.org/article/news/abuse-survivor-quits-papal-body-citing-vatican-resistance-to-safeguarding

Francis created the commission to be an independent body of experts, including survivors of clerical sexual abuse, to advise him with recommendations on best practices for protecting minors and vulnerable adults in the church. The commission is also charged with promoting responsibility in local churches by “uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults,” according to the commission’s statutes.

“However, despite the Holy Father approving all the recommendations made to him by the commission, there have been constant setbacks,” Collins said in a statement published on her website, mariecollins.net.

“This has been directly due to the resistance by some members of the Vatican Curia to the work of the commission. The lack of cooperation, particularly by the dicastery most closely involved in dealing with cases of abuse, has been shameful,” she said.

While Collins did not specifically name which dicastery, the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation is charged with investigating verified crimes the church defines as “more grave delicts,” which includes the sexual abuse of minors. The office, through its promoter of justice, also monitors the procedures that national bishops’ conferences have in place for dealing with abuse accusations and handling the dismissal from the priesthood of those guilty of sexual abuse.

In her NCR editorial, Collins said the commission’s template of safeguarding guidelines was never sent out to the world’s bishops’ conferences for helping them craft or improve their own policies and “the dicastery, which has the responsibility for reviewing existing bishops’ conference policy documents and which has its own template, is refusing to cooperate with the commission on the combining of the work.”

The commission had recommended a new judicial section be added within the doctrinal congregation to judge crimes of “abuse of office” by bishops alleged to have failed in fulfilling responsibilities linked to handling suspected and known cases of sex abuse. Even though the pope and his nine-member council of cardinals approved the new section in mid-2015, Collins confirmed in her editorial that it was never implemented.

Another papal directive promoting accountability of negligent bishops and religious superiors – “As a Loving Mother” – was also meant to begin in the fall of 2016, but “it is impossible to know if it has actually begun work or not,” Collins said.

She said the “last straw” that led to her handing in her letter of resignation was when she learned that the same dicastery that refused to cooperate on the safeguarding guidelines had also refused “to implement one of the simplest recommendations the commission has put forward to date.”

 

[Vouthon]

This is important:

cruxnow.com/interviews/2017/03/01/abuse-survivor-leaves-popes-anti-sex-abuse-commission/

**Survivor says she quit pope’s anti-abuse panel over frustrations with Curia

Francis, Collins told Crux, accepted all of the panel’s recommendations, but when they went for implementation, some members of the Church’s governing body, known as the Roman Curia, have hindered their implementation.**

She refused to offer names or to cite specific situations…

Yet despite her frustration with some members of the Curia, Collins said there’s no animosity or rift between herself and the rest of the members, nor with O’Malley.

“I simply have tried to work in the commission, and this resistance in areas of the curia is something I can’t continue working with, particularly as a survivor,” she said. “I can’t continue and it does not mean that the work won’t be continuing and I wish it goes well. I want to see what the Holy Father wanted to see in putting the commission in place, and that’s improvement in practices and policies.”

Collins also said that she’s “totally disgusted” by the opposition the commission finds within the Curia, and with the fact that men working at this level within the Church would resist the work they’re doing, which she said is for the protection of children and minors and for the care of survivors…

Reinforcing the idea that her complaint is not with the pope, the commission or O’Malley, at the cardinal’s request Collins has agreed to continue forming and training priests as well as newly ordained bishops, who once a year gather in Rome for what is often dubbed “baby-bishops school.”

“I don’t blame the Holy Father in any way,” she insisted, “and certainly don’t blame the commission, but I think that there’s politics involved and that’s what makes it even more unacceptable.”

 

[Casilda]

"I have come to the point where I can no longer be sustained by hope. As a survivor I have watched events unfold with dismay,” Collins said in her statement.

Did she mention what she plans to do moving forward?

 

[Casilda]

Okay found this

Her decision to step down was announced by the commission through a statement on Wednesday. Collins has agreed, however, to continue working with the Church to deliver anti-abuse training to clergy, including newly ordained bishops.

“With the members of the Commission I am deeply grateful for Marie’s willingness to continue to work with us in the education of church leaders, including the upcoming programs for new bishops and for the dicasteries of the Holy See.”

 

[tseleehw]

I can’t necessarily blame her if she felt nothing was getting done. She likely has better things to do with her time.