After meeting with pope, collaboration between Vatican, abuse victims takes ‘a step forward’

After a meeting at the Vatican in October last year, Pope Leo XIV and a network for victims of clergy sexual abuse and continue to build collaboration through conversations with the Vatican’s safeguarding commission.

The pope “is interested in dialogue and in seeing what can be done in his new role. I think the fact that he received us was a sign of trust on his part, because in the past the relationship between survivors’ groups and the Vatican has not been easy, so we took a step forward,” Matthias Katsch, a member of the advocacy organization Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) told EWTN News in Rome.

Katsch, who is from Germany, is a member of ECA’s board of directors and one of the members most critical of policies adopted to prevent abuse within the Church.

Almost eight months after the initial step of meeting with Pope Leo, the relationship between the Vatican and ECA has been formalized.

On June 15-16, the board of directors of ECA — which is present in 14 countries across five continents — held a meeting with top officials of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) at Palazzo Maffei, a Vatican-owned property in the center of Rome. The PCPM is responsible for promoting safeguarding policies in the Church.

The pope, though not present, proposed the meeting, which will have a second part later this year.

The private meetings — which included, among others, the commission’s secretary, Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera — were “very positive,” according to Katsch. Read more...