Pope Francis' sex abuse advisory committee has voted to temporarily sideline one of its members, a high-profile abuse survivor who had clashed with the commission over its mission
Peter Saunders, a British
advocate for survivors, talks during an interview with the Associated
Press in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Pope Francis’ sex abuse advisory
committee voted Saturday to temporarily sideline one of its members, a
high-profile abuse survivor who had clashed with the commission over its
mandate and mission. During a meeting of the commission Saturday, "it
was decided that Mr. Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence from
his membership to consider how he might best support the commission's
work," the Vatican said in a statement. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Peter
Saunders, a British advocate for victims, had been highly critical of
the Vatican's slow pace of progress in taking measures to protect
children and punish bishops who covered up for pedophile priests. He had
also wanted the commission to intervene immediately in individual
cases, rather than just craft long-term policies to fight abuse.
During
a commission meeting Saturday, "it was decided that Mr. Peter Saunders
would take a leave of absence from his membership to consider how he
might best support the commission's work," the Vatican said.The decision is a blow to Francis' efforts to show that he is tough on abuse, since the presence of Saunders and another abuse survivor, Marie Collins, had given the commission credibility.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Saunders said commission members, with one abstention, asked had him to step aside after concluding they could no longer trust him to work within the scope of the commission's mandate.
"I do not want to prevent the work of the commission, the good work that the commission is doing from going ahead, so I had no choice but to step aside," he said.
He said the Vatican's inaction in the face of continuing cases of children being raped and molested "made me lose faith in the process and lose faith in Pope Francis."
His departure leaves Collins as the lone abuse survivor on the commission, which was formed in 2013 to advise the Vatican on protecting children, educating church personnel and parishioners about abuse, and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood.
Collins told the AP it was a "sad day" for the commission. She acknowledged Saunders' complaints about the pace of work but said the overall mission was still important.
"It
is slow. It's not going to make changes overnight. And there are
frustrations in that," she said. "But if we can change policy and get
policies put in place that will stick around the world that will make
children safer in the future, then it's worth making time to get it
right."
The
commission was formed after victims' groups questioned whether the
Argentine pope, who had never dealt with an abuse case, really
understood the scope of the scandal. But the commission took a big step
last year when it successfully proposed that the Vatican create an
in-house tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect
their flocks.
The
commission had been highly critical of Francis' decision to appoint a
Chilean bishop despite allegations from abuse survivors that he had
covered up for the country's most notorious pedophile, the Rev. Fernando
Karadima.
One
of Karadima's victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, joined Saunders on Saturday in
Rome in hopes of speaking to the commission but was refused. Cruz had
been proposed as a possible commission member but emails published in
the Chilean media showed how the Chilean church hierarchy worked to keep
him off the panel.
Democratic
presidential candidate former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley leads
attendees in a song after holding a town hall at Grinnell College in
Grinnell, Iowa, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)DES
MOINES, Iowa — On Monday night, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s
tiny band of supporters will be the center of attention in Iowa
precincts across the state.O’Malley
had only 3 percent support in the final Des Moines Register-Bloomberg
Politics poll, but because of the Byzantine rules of the Democratic
caucusing process, his supporters could end up deciding the incredibly
close race between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.In
each of the state’s 1,681 caucusing locations, a candidate must get 15
percent of voters to be considered viable during an initial count that’s
taken at the beginning of the evening. O’Malley isn’t expected to reach
that threshold in the vast majority of precincts, which means his
supporters will be up for grabs — they must either choose another
candidate, or their vote will not count.Wooing
voters who back candidates that fail to meet the threshold has made a
big difference in elections in the state in the past: John Edwards
finished a surprise second in 2004 thanks in part to Dennis Kucinich’s
supporters defecting to him. And Bill Richardson’s backers joined Barack
Obama’s camp in 2008.The
Clinton campaign is arming its precinct captains with special software
to help them figure out how to keep O’Malley supporters from defecting
to Sanders’ camp, BuzzFeed News reported Saturday. Meanwhile, Sanders’
precinct captains are being told to beef up on their O’Malley knowledge
so they can entice his fans over to their side and to offer them
delegates for the county convention as inducement.“You
might have to cut a deal,” said Mitch Henry, a Democratic activist who
was leading a small training for Sanders precinct captains Saturday
afternoon in a coffee shop in Des Moines. “Let’s say in this case you
have 10 O’Malley supporters. You would maybe offer them a delegate. You
could say to them, ‘OK, you 10 come over, we give you a delegate.’”This
is a largely symbolic concession — the O’Malley supporters’ votes would
go to Sanders in the caucus, but in the county conventions later on,
their delegate could switch back to supporting O’Malley.If horse-trading fails, there’s always the power of persuasion.“I
would definitely beef up on the O’Malley top 5 issues, see what they
are,” Henry told the precinct captains. Henry, who supported Sanders
until a little more than a month ago, added that he believes most
O’Malley supporters’ second choice is Sanders.“Talking
to a lot of O’Malley supporters, there are a lot of ways Bernie lines
up on the issues. A lot of them will say the environment [is their top
concern], and Bernie is clearly superior to Hillary on the environment,”
said Bri Steirer, a precinct captain for the Drake University area.But
the Sanders plan to convince O’Malley fans with delegates and issues
may not be able to compete with Clinton’s scheme. The Clinton campaign
has trained its precinct captains to use software that calculates when
it benefits Clinton to give O’Malley supporters a few of their votes in
order to block them from defecting to Sanders. That means Clinton
supporters would help O’Malley become a viable candidate in precincts
where she would still carry the day.A
Sanders precinct captain, Darlene Lawler, asked Henry about whether
Bernie supporters should be trying to do the same thing — helping
O’Malley become viable in cases where it would help Bernie.“I
would not give them three or four people to be viable because you just
don’t know what could happen,” Henry said, adding that the “math” can
get complicated as the night goes on, and it’s easy to make a mistake.
