The Vatican Commission believes the Catholic Church must do a better job compensating victims of abuse

The Catholic Church must do a better job in dealing with compensation for victims of clergy sex abuse, the Vatican’s child protection commission said Tuesday in its first annual report.

The church has been rocked for decades by scandals around the world involving pedophile priests and their crimes being covered up.

These scandals have damaged the church’s credibility and cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The commission said the compensation went beyond money and “encompassed a much broader spectrum of actions.”

This includes admitting wrongdoing, public apologies, and other forms of true brotherly bonding with victim-survivors.

The commission said it would delve deeper into the issue of reparations in its report next year.

Pope Francis established the anti-abuse commission in 2013.

He faced the strongest criticism over clergy abuse during a September visit to Belgium, where the king and prime minister called for more help for victims.

A Vatican summit of world bishops ended this month with a final text that apologized several times for the “untold and persistent” pain suffered by Catholics abused by clerics.

Tuesday’s report called for greater transparency, with victims given greater access to documents relating to them.

It said investigations and trials by the Vatican Doctrine Office (DDF) were too slow and secretive.

Colombian bishop and commission secretary Luis Manuel Ali Herrera said “the lack of communication” during meetings with victims “was a permanent, constant complaint.”

Chilean abuse survivor and committee member Juan Carlos Cruz said the lack of information was “a form of retrauma for many survivors, who have no idea where their abuse case is.”

Other recommendations included the creation of a Vatican ombudsman for victims, which ensured more effective punishment of offending clerics, and an invitation to Francis to write an encyclical – the highest form of papal teaching – on the protection of children .

Devastating realities

The anti-abuse commission is the first of its kind in the Catholic Church, but abuse survivors have accused it of being toothless.

Several former members have also left on acrimony.

The committee consists of priests, nuns and non-Catholics.

It was absorbed into the DDF in 2022 in an attempt to increase its clout, but the report highlighted how much it still struggles to make itself heard.

U.S. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads the commission, said things were improving, while acknowledging past “frustration with the slowness of change.”

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the Bishop Accountability abuse tracking group, said Tuesday’s report amounted to window dressing.

“It doesn’t address the central and devastating reality,” she said.

“That children continue to be sexually abused by clergy in the Catholic Church, and that universal church law still allows these priests to be reinstated if certain conditions are met.”

Reuters