Archbishop of Boston and a cardinal of the Catholic church Sean O’Malley was not included in the committee that is organizing an upcoming summit on child abuse prevention, which Pope Francis will host at the Vatican in February.
The organizing committee, which includes four members, was announced by the Pope Friday and will be tasked with planning a summit to discuss the prevention of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy members and the protection of children.
O’Malley’s omission from the panel was questioned by Boston’s Catholic community because he is the head of a Vatican advisory council on the prevention of clergy sexual abuse. O’Malley has also applauded the Boston Globe Spotlight team for exposing the church’s crimes against children and kickstarting initiatives to prevent sexual misconduct.
Terrence Donilon, secretary of communications and public affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston, wrote in an email that O’Malley was not excluded from the February meeting and that he will be participating.
“The Vatican announced the organizing committee last week,” Donilon wrote. “The Commission for the Protection of Minors (which Cardinal Sean chairs) had originally proposed the February meeting; The Council of Cardinals, which he is a member, then endorsed it. The Pope then approved it.”
In a statement from O’Malley Friday, he said he was grateful for the announcement of the organizing committee.
“I am pleased that this meeting has been convoked by the Holy Father and I look forward to participating,” O’Malley said in the statement.
In his statement, O’Malley also said the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will play a major role in recommending the best practices for the church for education and prevention programs regarding the crime of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
“At the request of the Holy Father the Commission will assist and serve as a resource for the organizing committee,” O’Malley said in the statement.
Meetings between survivors and groups of newly named bishops is one program the Commission organized, O’Malley said, thus giving inspiration for the summit at the Vatican in February.
“These meetings have inspired our view that calling the bishops to Rome for a similar high-impact meeting would be very important in addressing the clergy abuse crisis globally,” O’Malley said in his statement. “This is a critical moment for the universal Church in addressing the sexual abuse crisis. The February meeting will be an important moment for developing a clear path forward for dioceses around the world.”
O’Malley said that the church must continue to commit to a zero tolerance policy toward sexual abuse and increase transparency by releasing the names of clergy members accused of abuse.
“Above all else, we must place the support and pastoral care of survivors first,” O’Malley said in the statement. “This is a life-long journey that is now part of the fabric of the Catholic family and requires a partnership between the laity and clergy in responding to the failures of episcopal leadership by holding bishops accountable for the crimes against children and vulnerable adults.”
Megan Goodwin, a visiting lecturer of philosophy and religion at Northeastern University, said she thinks the child abuse prevention summit is a potentially positive sign, but that she is unsure if the church will do anything to materially correct the problem.
“Francis has obviously done more than most to address the systemic covering up of sexual abuse for literal decades in the Catholic church,” Goodwin said. “But one of the things that has been frustrating, as someone who studies religion and sex abuse, is that we’ve known about this problem for literally decades at this point and the Catholic church has done really very little to substantially address this problem.”
Goodwin said that instead of having another conversation regarding sex abuse in the church that leads to little change, she would like to see action beyond it to change the systemic culture of sex abuse.
“First and foremost, they need to be listening more directly to laypeople and inviting laypeople supervision of the process of making amends and assuring that this doesn’t happen in the future,” she said.
Curtis Williams, 26, of Brighton, said he thinks reform is necessary and that many people in the church use religion as a means to take advantage of people.
“I’m definitely for it, of course,” Williams said. “It never should have been happening in the first place. I think it was disgusting that these old men were doing it to children. It’s so disgusting. I don’t think people can preach a message of godliness but still be taking advantage of people, especially children.”
Lauren Seslar, 19, of Back Bay, said, as a member of the church, she thinks O’Malley should have been included in the committee but is glad reforms toward child abuse are beginning.
“I think it’s about time they began reforms and I think that there’s definitely a lot more that they could do as such a big part of the world,” she said.
Joel Lau contributed to the reporting of this story.
