The Catholic Church needs to unify policies on compensating victims of sexual abuse by clergy, the Vatican’s child protection commission said in its first annual report on Tuesday.
For decades, the church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
The commission stressed "the importance of compensation for victims/survivors, as a concrete commitment to their healing journey", and pledged to work "so that standardised and known procedures are developed in a more comprehensive way".
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It said compensation was not only financial, "but embraces a much broader spectrum of actions ... such as acknowledging mistakes, public apologies, and other forms of true fraternal closeness to victims/survivors and their communities".
It added it would delve deeper into the issue of reparations in its report next year.
The strongest criticism in the report is reserved for the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with abuse cases. It provided only “limited statistical information on its activities,” making it difficult to conduct an accurate audit of its productivity, the report said.
The report is the first of what are planned to be annual reports on church policies and procedures for safeguarding children from the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was set up in 2014 by Pope Francis.
Approximately 50 pages in length, the latest report follows the gathering of data from across the continents, as well as from various religious institutes, congregations, and the Roman Curia, which it encouraged to be more transparent in its procedures and processes.
It stressed the need for better governance on the issue at the Vatican with “consolidation and clarity around the jurisdiction held by dicasteries of the Roman Curia, to ensure the efficient, timely, and rigorous management of cases of abuse referred to the Holy See.”
There was a need, where abuse cases were mishandled, for “a streamlined process for discharge from office, to enable a smooth and simple pathway for the resignation or removal of a church leader,” it said.
The report also called for further development of the church’s teachings on safeguarding and for studying damage and compensation policies to promote a rigorous approach to reparations.
The Commission for the Protection of Minors reviews safeguarding practices in between 15 and 20 local churches each year and aims to publish its findings throughout the entire Catholic Church over the course of the next five or six annual reports.
Those churches looked at it this report do not include Ireland, but the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (male) or the Spiritans, is among the two religious congregations it reviews. The Spiritans run some of Ireland’s best-known private fee paying schools.
While the report said 31 cases of abuse involving Spiritans had been received at the Vatican between 2014 and 2024, it does not give their country of origin. It said that while one such case was handled at the Vatican in about five months, “most of the cases are reported to take several years.”
It added that “this long turnaround time is of urgent concern,” and criticised the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith for providing only “limited statistical information on its activities,” making it difficult to conduct an accurate audit of its productivity.
It found child protection in the church worldwide was varied, with parts of the Americas, Europe, and Oceania benefiting from “substantial resources” for safeguarding, whereas many from Central and South America, Africa, and Asia “have inadequate dedicated resources.”
There was, therefore, it said, an urgency “of increasing solidarity among episcopal conferences, to mobilise resources for a universal standard in safeguarding.”
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has taken numerous measures to tackle abuse, from opening up internal church documents to punishing high-ranking clergy.
The pontiff faced some of the strongest criticism yet levied against him over clergy abuse during a September visit to Belgium, where both the country’s king and prime minister called for more concrete actions for victims.
Meanwhile, a Vatican summit of world bishops ended on Saturday with a final text apologising several times for the “untold and ongoing” pain suffered by Catholics who were abused by clergy.
Tuesday's report also called for more transparency, with victims given greater access to documents concerning them, a clearer division of roles between Vatican departments dealing with abuse, and more effective punishment of offenders.
It noted that past “actions and/or inactions” by church leaders “have been the source of additional harm to victims/survivors of sexual abuse”, revealing the need for “a disciplinary or administrative proceeding that provides an efficient path for resignation or removal from office”. Additional reporting: Reuters
