Pope Leo on Saturday appointed a French archbishop as the new leader of the Vatican’s commission to combat clergy sexual abuse. This is the recently inducted spiritual leader’s first public move towards an issue that has seriously damaged Christianity’s credibility worldwide.
Archbishop Thibault Verny will now be president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, in addition to his diocesan capacity as the archbishop of Chambéry, South-east France.
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The Vatican commission was created by the late Pope Francis (Pope Leo’s predecessor) in 2014, in order to attack the root causes behind sexual abuse scandals that damaged the reputation of the Church in various countries across the world.
“It seems to me that we must continue to implement a mindset, a culture, within the Churches to spread the protection of minors and ensure that it becomes natural, both in the Church and in families and also in society,” Verny said, as per a Vatican News report.
He also prioritises the “equitable sharing of resources so that all parts of the Church, regardless of geography or circumstance, can uphold the highest standards of protection” a Reuters report said.
Verny succeeds American-origin Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, who has led the pontifical commission since its inception.
The new appointment comes amid mixed opinions on whether the Pope Francis had really effected enough change during his papacy, in the Vatican’s bid to reverse decades of reputational damage that the sex scandals had caused.
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“He gave survivors a lot of hope when he came into office, promising transparency and change,” explained Marie Collins, one of the eight sexual abuse survivors who spoke to Pope Francis at a 2018 meeting in Dublin. She had been abused by a priest at the age of 13 in 1960s Ireland, a separate Reuters report said.
“I’d like to see the next pope (after Pope Francis) institute real policies with real teeth,” Collins had said, earlier this year. She had also been a member of the commission that archbishop Verny now heads, but had left in 2017, frustrated due to internal resistance.
Vatican vs clergy sexual scandals: Pope Leo installs new head of anti-abuse commission
