ROME – Nearly 25 years after the explosion of clerical abuse scandals in the United States spurred a new “zero tolerance” attitude and almost six years after Pope Francis’s global safeguarding summit and the issuance of a swath of new norms, the question arises: Has any of it been effective?
Members of the pope’s safeguarding commission in presenting their first annual global report on safeguarding efforts around the world Oct. 29 were optimistic, arguing that in the 12 years since its establishment, despite a deeply entrenched culture at times resistant to change, progress was being made.
