The newly instituted Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors meets for the first time this morning for a three-day meeting scheduled to end on Saturday.
The child protection commission is an unprecedented body for the Holy See in that its eight person panel contains four women, five lay people and three anglophones.
Headed by the Cardinal of Boston, Sean O'Malley, the council will look to the expert contribution of four women – French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, former Polish prime minister Hanna Suchocka, British psychiatrist Baroness Sheila Hollins and Irish sex abuse survivor and activist Marie Collins.
The other members are Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, head of pyschology at Rome’s Gregorian University, Argentine Jesuit Humberto Miguel Yanez and Italian canon law expert Claudio Papale.
In a communique yesterday, the Vatican said the commission's initial task would be to reflect "on the nature and the aims" of the commission itself and to consider ways to involve "representatives from other areas in the world".
To begin with, it will meet in the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican residence cum hotel where Pope Francis lives.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Marie Collins said yesterday she had no idea what shape and direction the commission would take.
However, many observers argue that its very composition is an indication that the Holy See has belatedly understood the enormity of the damage done to the European and North American churches by the sex abuse crisis.
When the members were named last month, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said there was “nothing casual” about the line-up.