Catholic Church too slow in helping abuse victims, Vatican panel says

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican’s child protection commission criticised senior Catholic leaders in an annual report on Oct 16 for not moving quickly enough to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and to implement new safeguarding efforts worldwide.

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 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 that the Italian Church 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.

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 issued its first annual report only in 2024.

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 Evangelisation, 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”.

Mr Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the head writer of the report, suggested the Vatican had not devoted enough resources to its safeguarding initiatives. “Resources are a major issue,” Mr 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 criticises 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 answered by only 81 of them. South Korea, another country evaluated, had 100 per cent participation.

Cites lack of transparency over bishop removals

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

Pope Leo XIV, elected in May to replace Pope Francis, has met commission members several times and appointed a new president for the group, a French archbishop, in July.

One of Pope Francis’ main reforms was creating a global system for Catholics to report suspicions of abuse or cover-ups by bishops. Abuse survivors and their advocates have called for more actions, including a global zero tolerance policy for priests accused of abuse.

The Oct 16 report criticised the Vatican for a lack of transparency about when bishops are removed from office for issues related to abuse or cover-up. 

The Vatican rarely gives reasons for a bishop’s removal, even in cases involving abuse, preferring to say simply that the pope accepted the bishop’s resignation.

“The lack of accountability for Church leaders was a frequent issue raised by victims/survivors,” said the report.

“The commission emphasises the importance of publicly communicating the reasons for resignation and/or removal, when the decision is related to cases of abuse or negligence.” REUTERS