Vatican launches website in effort to protect minors from pedophiles in church

The new website includes a template for local churches seeking to protect minors from clerical sex abuse, guidelines on how to handle complaints and options for education and healing.

It also provides news and information about the commission in an easily accessible format and promotes greater sharing of information within the church.

“It is very important for the commission to have a means to communicate,” said Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor and commission member. “I hope eventually people will also use it to communicate with the commission.”
“Awareness is so important, anything that encourages people to come forward and seek help,” Collins said. “This is very important to me as a survivor.”

The site is in English and will eventually have versions in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. It includes contact details – an email address and telephone number — for the commission, which hopes to promote education and awareness, especially in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where the problem has not received as much attention. “It is very important to the commission that we are as transparent as possible,” stressed out Emer McCarthy, coordinator of the project for the commission. “Our members want people to know that they are doing their level best to carry out the commission of the Holy Father.” 

The commission was established by the Pope in 2013 and is headed by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley. The committee currently consists of 17 full members of the clergy and lay people, men and women of different academic background, representatives of all the continents.

When the Pope instituted a commission, he asked for her help in the development of effective means of protecting children and adults, as well as in the preparation of training programs for all those involved in this work. He repeatedly denounced the shameful sin in the church and said in February 2015 that the Church needs to heal itself from the "filth" of sexual crimes. "Parents need to know that the Church is doing everything possible to protect their children, – he said in his address to the bishops. – They must also know that they can always turn to the Church for help and find it in a warm and safe home."

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