Posts Tagged Nicole Winfield
Pope makes appointments amid criticism of sex abuse response
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on April 5, 2017
Wikimedia/Casa Rosada
“Collins’ departure laid bare the cultural chasm between the commission’s (Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors) outside experts, who proposed best-in-class ideas for protecting children, and the reality of the Vatican bureaucracy and its legal and administrative limitations.”
Pope Francis on Tuesday (Apr. 4) named a new official to oversee the Vatican office that processes clerical sex abuse cases amid mounting criticism over a yearslong backlog of cases and Francis’ handling of the problem.
The promotion of Monsignor John Kennedy to head of the discipline section of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith was the second abuse-related appointment in recent days. Francis named the Rev. Hans Zollner, one of the Catholic Church’s top experts on fighting abuse and protecting children, as an adviser to the Vatican’s office for clergy on Saturday (Apr. 1).
Francis and the Vatican have come under fresh scrutiny over their response to the abuse crisis since Irish survivor Marie Collins resigned from the pope’s sex abuse advisory commission on March 1, citing “unacceptable” resistance to the commission’s proposals from the Vatican’s doctrine office.
Collins’ departure laid bare the cultural chasm between the commission’s outside experts, who proposed best-in-class ideas for protecting children, and the reality of the Vatican bureaucracy and its legal and administrative limitations.
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Read more …
Pope’s sex abuse panel scores awareness victory in Vatican / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on September 12, 2016
Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission has scored a victory within the Vatican: Members have been invited to address Vatican congregations and a training course for new bishops, suggesting that the Holy See now considers child protection programs to be an important responsibility for church leaders.
“Commission members praised the development as a breakthrough given that bishops have long been accused of covering up for abusers by moving pedophile priests from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police. For decades, the Vatican too turned a blind eye and failed to take action against problem priests or their bishop enablers.
“Commission members have already addressed the Vatican congregations for priests and religious orders and the Vatican’s diplomatic school. This week, members including Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins and the Vatican’s former sex-crimes prosecutor, Bishop Charles Scicluna, will address the new bishops’ course, which the Vatican hosts for all bishops named in the previous year to teach them how to run their dioceses.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Pope’s abuse accountability tribunal going nowhere fast / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on March 9, 2016
Pope Francis’ proposed Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests is going nowhere fast.
“Despite fresh focus from the Oscar-winning film ‘Spotlight’ on how Catholic bishops protected priests who raped children, Francis’ most significant sex abuse-related initiative to date has stalled. It’s a victim of a premature roll-out, unresolved legal and administrative questions and resistance both inside and outside of the Holy See, church officials and canon lawyers say.
“The surprise proposal made headlines when it was announced on June 10 as the first major initiative of Francis’ sex abuse advisory commission. A Vatican communique said Francis and his nine cardinal advisers had unanimously agreed to create a new judicial section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle ‘abuse of office’ cases against bishops accused of failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles.
“But the proposal immediately raised red flags to canon lawyers and Vatican officials alike.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Pope’s family synod: No changes, but everything has changed
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Synod of Bishops, Synod on the Family, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on October 20, 2015
It’s now quite certain that Pope Francis’ big summit on family issues won’t endorse any changes to church doctrine on the church’s teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
“And yet, it seems, everything has changed.
“From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove ‘intrinsically disordered’ from the church’s language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis’ synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come.
“And if Francis has his way, there’s more ahead.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Pope creates abuse tribunal for cases of bishop negligence / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on June 10, 2015
Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests, the biggest step the Holy See has taken yet to hold bishops accountable.
“For years, the Vatican has been criticized by victims, advocacy groups and others for having failed to ever punish or forcibly remove a bishop who covered up for clergy who raped or molested children. In April, Francis accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop who had been convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser, but that wasn’t a forced removal.
“The Vatican said Wednesday (June 9) that Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board. They create a mechanism by which the Vatican can receive and examine complaints of abuse of office by bishops and adjudicate them.
“A special new judicial section will be created inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ‘to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors,’ a Vatican statement said.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Vatican hits sour note with women, but progress may come / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on February 2, 2015
A new Vatican outreach initiative to listen to women hit a sour note before it even got off the ground: The sexy blonde on its Internet promo video came under such ridicule that it was quickly taken down.
“But the program is going ahead, and an inaugural meeting this week will study women’s issues in ways that are utterly new for the Holy See.
“No, there is no talk of ordaining women priests.
“But the working paper for the Pontifical Council of Culture’s plenary assembly on ‘Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference’ speaks about opening the church’s doors to women so they can offer their skills ‘in full collaboration and integration’ with men.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Also of interest from the Vatican Information Service today —
Vatican City, 2 February 2015 (VIS) – A press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office this morning to present the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture on the theme “Women’s Cultures: between equality and difference,” which will be held in Rome from 4 to 7 February. The speakers were Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Anna Maria Tarantola, president of RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana); Monica Maggioni, director of RAI News; and Nancy Brilli, actor.
The Assembly will be divided into four sessions in which the following themes will be considered: “Between equality and difference: the quest for equilibrium,” “Generativity as a symbolic code,” “The female body: between culture and biology” and “Women and religion: flight or new forms of participation in the life of the Church?” The Congress will be attended only by members and consultors of the Pontifical Council by pontifical appointment, with the exception of the session on Wednesday 4 February, when there will be a moment of public participation at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. For a period of 50 minutes there will be a series of videos, brief interviews, readings and images, and live music. Entry will be free, subject to capacity.
Pope’s sex abuse panel makes progress / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful on October 7, 2014
Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission has made new progress after languishing for much of the past year. It approved its legal statutes, proposed new members and divided up work to focus on reaching out to survivors, holding bishops accountable and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood, The Associated Press has learned. The commission met over the past weekend (Oct. 4-5) for the third time since it was announced last December.”
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press on abcnews.go.com — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Marie Collins, a clergy sexual abuse survivor from Ireland who quoted in this story as a member of Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, will be the featured speaker at the Voice of the Faithful® 2015 National Assembly in Hartford, Connecticut, April 18, 2015. Click here to register for the VOTF 2015 National Assembly.
Vatican: 848 Priests Defrocked for Abuse since ’04 / Associated Press
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Clericalism, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on May 7, 2014
The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004 …
“The Vatican statistics are notable in that they show how the peaks in numbers over the years – both of cases reported and sanctions meted out – roughly parallels the years in which abuse scandals were in the news. And they showed that far from diminishing in recent years, the number of cases reported annually to the Vatican has remained a fairly constant 400 or so since 2010, the last year the scandal erupted in public around the globe. These cases, however, concern mostly abuse that occurred decades ago.”
By John Heilprin and Nicole Winfield, Associated Press — Click here to read the rest of this story.
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A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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