Catholic Church still failing to ensure clerical abuse is reported, Pope Francis’ commission says

(CNN) — Parts of the Roman Catholic Church are still failing to ensure clerical sexual abuse is reported adequately, Pope Francis’ commission for child protection said Tuesday, raising concerns about a “lack of transparency” in the Vatican’s handling of cases.
In its first annual report, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors surveyed safeguarding protocols from bishops in 17 different parts of the world, along with how the Church’s central administration processes cases.
“At times, the commission found a troubling lack of reporting structures and victim/survivor accompaniment services,” the report said. “The commission found a persistent concern regarding the transparency in the Roman Curia’s (the church’s central administration) procedures and juridical processes. The commission notes that this will continue to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community,” it added.
The production of the report was led by Maud de Boer Buquicchio, a former UN special rapporteur on the sexual exploitation of children and a member of the commission that was set up by the pope in 2014. Francis asked the commission two years ago to produce an annual report on child protection initiatives which he wanted to help bring “transparency and accountability” on abuse.
The report looked at Papua New Guinea, one of the countries that the pope visited last month, finding that the bishops of Papua New Guinea and the neighboring Solomon Islands have “inadequate provision for different types of victim/survivor support services” and that “victims/survivors do not play a direct role in the formulation of Church safeguarding policy.”
Meanwhile, in Cameroon, the commission found that “cultural challenges engender a hesitation to address the problem of abuse head-on” and that “this hesitation is shared by some church authorities.”
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