Logo
EN

The end of Pope Francis' zero tolerance?

Sexual abuse victim Marie Collins has resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. CDF prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Müller has contested her accusations.

La Croix International

As a young girl in Ireland, Collins was sexually abused by a priest in the 1960s. In an article published on 1 March by the American weekly National Catholic Reporter, she criticized the “reluctance of some members of the Vatican Curia to implement the recommendations of the Commission despite their approval by the pope".

Why did Collins resign?

“In the face of obstacles, she felt that the only solution was to shake things up and resign,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, in the Corriere Della Sera, an Italian daily newspaper.

In fact, the Commission, an advisory committee to the Pope, does not have any direct authority over the dicasteries of the Curia. 

The Commission has to count on their collaboration and cannot verify the implementation of its recommendations. Furthermore, it does not have its own budget or actual personnel.

What was the nature of the Curia’s resistance?

The role of the Commission is to “create a climate of the protection of children in the Church”, affirms Cardinal Parolin. However, there are problems with the demarcation of powers between the Commission and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which is directly responsible for dealing with cases of sexual abuse.

The CDF is the dicastery that Collins criticized most strongly.

“Some clerics see the Commission, with its majority of lay members, as interfering with their work,” she told La Croix.

Like any judiciary body, the CDF is faced with the thorny issue of balancing the rights of the perpetrators with the rights of victims, who struggle to even be acknowledged as such.

The recent investigation in Guam, led by Cardinal Raymond Burke under the auspices of the CDF, is a case in point. He wanted to question the abuse victims without the presence of their lawyer. This was in accordance with a policy of privacy intended to protect the victims as well as the accused.

“The victim finds him or herself alone in front of an assembly of clerics in order to speak about the abuse suffered at the hands of a priest… This is in itself a violation,” Marie Collins emphasized. “This kind of secrecy prevents people from seeing how children can be destroyed by sexual abuse.”

The Commission’s recommendation for a Tribunal to be put in place whereby negligent bishops could be held accountable was approved by Pope Francis and announced in June 2015. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Prefect of the CDF, admitted that this Tribunal was never implemented.

“[There were] intensive discussions with the different dicasteries that were involved in the fight against pedophilia in the clergy," the Cardinal explained.

" It was then concluded ‘that the dicastery responsible for bishops already had the necessary tools’ to deal with any bishops found to have been negligent." 

 Cardinal Müller is already in conflict with the Pope on a number of issues.

Is this the end of the zero tolerance advocated by the Pope?

“I believe that the Pope is trying to do all that he can. I am convinced that what he has said about zero tolerance and his wish to put an end to abuse is not mere words”, says Collins.

“Those in the Vatican who resisted Marie Collins are happy to see her resignation interpreted as a failure on the part of the Pope”, points out the theologian Massimo Faggioli, contributor to La Croix International.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, had this to say: “There is no doubt that Marie Collins’s departure is a severe blow. But it only increases our determination to work even harder for the Church’s reform.”

The Commission has nonetheless made some significant advances. It has made it clear that pedophilia is not limited to the decadent West, but has occurred in the Church all over the world. The issue of sexual abuse in Asia and Africa is beginning to be addressed.

Within the Curia, Marie Collins also pointed out that several dicasteries have collaborated well with the Commission. 

As an example, she mentioned the raising of awareness of new bishops coming to train in Rome. “The Congregation for the Clergy has worked hard on a better training for priests, with greater awareness and vigilance in the recruitment of seminarians."

Originally published on March 6, 2017