Month: May 2023

The Dispatch

Vatican abuse commission now more ‘impact-focused,’ Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley says

May 8, 2023 Catholic News Agency 6
Cardinal Sean O’Malley briefs reporters during the Vatican abuse summit. / Daniel Ibanez

Boston, Mass., May 8, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

In his role as president of the Vatican’s child protection commission, Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said the body’s recent actions “represent a major shift towards a more impact-focused direction.” 

At the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which took place from May 3–6, members adopted several new policies and updates in an attempt to address the sexual abuse crisis. 

Those changes include a proposal updating the Church’s guidelines for addressing clergy sexual abuse, a forthcoming “audit tool” to “evaluate the adequacy of local churches safeguarding guidelines,” and a new fund supported by bishops’ conferences around the world to support victims, their families, and communities in impoverished areas, according to the commission’s May 8 press release.

“At times, this new direction has been both steep and fast for all of us reflecting the urgency of the challenges. This accelerated pace over the last six months has caused growing pains as we have attempted to respond to both short and longer-term needs,” O’Malley said in the press release.

“In our plenary, we developed key adjustments to our working methodology so as to clarify our different roles and to create a sense of common ownership of our mandate and of our collective responsibility for its implementation,” O’Malley said.

During the plenary assembly, the commission also reviewed a partnership agreement that it has had with the GHR Foundation since December 2022. The GHR Foundation, a U.S.-based Catholic philanthropic organization, provides “regional safeguarding consultants” to the commission, the press release said. 

The commission reviewed the framework for the Annual Report of Safeguarding Policies and Procedures in the Church, which Pope Francis requested in April to promote “transparency and accountability” on sexual abuse responses from the local churches around the world.

“The plan adopts a human-centered design methodology that focuses on how the needs of victims and survivors can be prioritized and addressed in the Church’s reporting mechanisms with the purpose of offering proposals to the Holy Father on how gaps can be addressed,” the press release said.

As requested by Pope Francis, the commission brainstormed about ways “to animate the Church to combat the evils of online child abuse,” the press release said.

A five-year plan “identifying objectives, goals, and performance indicators to measure progress and to provide accountability to stakeholders” was also adopted by the commission, the press release said. 

Additionally, the commission collaborated with the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples “to further the goals of safeguarding through the work of the Vatican office that oversees the Church’s life in more than half the territory of the globe,” the press release said.

A new study “of the theme of vulnerability in its various forms” was commissioned “so as to equip Church entities with robust measures to combat this emerging area of abuse,” the press release said.

“The Holy Father has asked a lot from us, and we are all committed to making this work,” O’Malley said. 

“We have sought the necessary resources to respond adequately, and we are confident in the plan we have laid out and the people we have working with us,” he concluded.

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News Briefs

Pope Francis: Jesus calls us to set our sights on heaven

May 7, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli on May 7, 2023. / Vatican Media

CNA Staff, May 7, 2023 / 06:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday warned against the danger of living life without a sense of purpose or a destination to set our course by, reminding the faithful that Jesus is “our compass for reaching heaven,” our true home.

Speaking to pilgrims gathered on a sunny day in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Regina Caeli, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus consoles his disciples before his ascension, telling them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6).

“Jesus sees the disciples’ distress, their fear of being abandoned, just as it happens to us when we are forced to be separated from someone we care for. And so, he says: ‘I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am you may be also,” the pope said.

“Jesus uses the familiar image of home, the place of relationships and intimacy. In the Father’s house — he says to his friends, and to each one of us — there is space for you, you are welcome, you will always be received with the warmth of an embrace, and I am in Heaven to prepare a place for you!”

Pope Francis said that keeping in mind “where life is headed” is the way to get through the experiences of “fatigue, bewilderment, and even failure.”

When we lose sight of what makes “life worth living for,” he said, we “compress our life into the present,” the pope said. We merely seek maximum enjoyment and “end up living day by day, without purpose, without a goal.”

“Our homeland, instead, is in heaven; let us not forget the greatness and the beauty of our destination!” he urged.

Pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media
Pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media

But if we know the goal, we also have to know how to get there, the pope continued. When we face problems or when there is the “sensation that evil is stronger,” we ask, like Thomas, “What should I do?”

The pope responded: “Let us listen to Jesus’ answer: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’ … He is the way and therefore faith in him is not a ‘package of ideas’ in which to believe, but rather a road to be traveled, a journey to undertake.”

“He is the way that leads to unfailing happiness,” the pope said, and imitating him is “the compass for reaching heaven: loving Jesus, the way, becoming signs of his love on earth.”

“Let us not be overwhelmed by the present,” the pope said. “Let us look up, to heaven, let us remember the goal, let us think that we are called to eternity, to the encounter with God.”

The pope then led the traditional Easter midday prayer, the Regina Caeli, in Latin.

After the prayer, the Holy Father noted two beatifications that happened on Saturday, one in Spain and one in Uruguay.

The first bishop of Uruguay, Bishop Jacinto Vera, was beatified in Montevideo. The bishop, who died in 1881, “witnessed to the gospel with powerful missionary ideals in the very difficult times of civil war,” the pope noted.

In Spain, Conchita Barrecheguren was beatified. Her full name was María de la Concepción del Perpetuo Socorro, but she was known as Conchita (the nickname for those named after the Immaculate Conception). The pope recalled how she “was bedridden for a long time and was able to face her illness with a lot of courage and strength.” She died in her early 20s, in 1927.

Members of the Meter Association, an organization that works to combat the abuse of minors, wave flags and a banner in St. Peter's Square on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media
Members of the Meter Association, an organization that works to combat the abuse of minors, wave flags and a banner in St. Peter’s Square on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media

The pope also greeted a number of the faithful who were in the Square. Among those he welcome were members of the Meter Association who were dressed in bright yellow clothing and were accompanied by their founder, Father Fortunato di Noto. This association works to combat the abuse of minors. The pope noted that they were marking a remembrance day for victims. He encouraged them in their work and thanked them, reminding them that Jesus meets them in the young people they assist. I “accompany you with my prayers,” he said.

The pope also had a special hello for members of the Swiss Guard with their friends and family members, who participated in Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony.

There were 23 recruits sworn in on May 6, the tradition day of the initiation ceremony, which marks the anniversary of the sacrifice of 147 Swiss guards who died during the Sack of Rome in 1527 as they protected Pope Clement VII.

Finally, the pope noted the May 8 feast of Our Lady of Pompeii.

“In this sanctuary where we pray for peace, and especially in this month of May, we pray the rosary asking Our Blessed Mother for the gift of peace, especially for the people in Ukraine.”

He expressed his wish that leaders of countries “would listen to the desire of the people — who continue to suffer, and who desire and long for peace.”

The shrine in Pompeii — just a few minutes from the city that was famously destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. — is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and was renovated in the late 1800s.

The history of the shrine is a testament to God’s practice of choosing the weak and bringing good out of evil. The shrine was renovated by Bartolo Longo, who had joined a sect during his time as a student and became a satanic priest. He publicly ridiculed Christianity, until eventually a friend introduced him to a saintly Dominican priest, and he converted. Longo, who became a mystic devoted to the rosary, died in 1926.

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