Latest papal health scare doesn't mean the end, but it may mean change
- Jan 24, 2021
Between the Vatican’s McCarrick report and the US presidential elections, much of what’s happened in the rest of the global Church over the past week has gone unnoticed.
One of the most outspoken survivors of clerical abuse has said that he wants to see accountability for both the crime and cover-up, and that if an upcoming summit fails to yield these results, Pope Francis will have failed victims.
The only non-Western member of the committee organizing the Feb. 21-24 Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse can contribute “deep insights” at the meeting, according to a member of the pope’s commission for child protection.
Rocio Figueroa, a former consecrated member of a lay movment and a survivor of sexual abuse within her institution, has called the Church out for structural habits of cover-up, and said she believes lay movements are the next frontier in abuse prevention and oversight.
A leading expert in the field of child protection has said a global summit of bishops addressing the issue in February will force prelates to accept the problem as a global phenomenon happening on their own turf, and voiced hope that there will be concrete follow-up to any proposals made.
Father Fortunato Di Noto, a veteran in the fight against sexual abuse, said that “a great effort on prevention was made” in writing the new guidelines for Italian bishops.