A member of the Pope’s special commission on sexual abuse has
indicated that it is an open question how Chuch leaders will respond to
the problem.In an interview with Katholisch.de, Father Hans Zollner said: “The question remains if those responsible in the Church will actively pursue the topic out of self-motivation, or only when scandals become public.”
The Jesuit priest was reacting to the resignation of another commission member, Marie Collins, who had complained that the group’s work has been thwarted by resistance from the Roman Curia.
Father Zollner said that although he did not think the Curia in particular were opposed to the commission’s work, he did find that Church officials generally find the topic “deeply terrible and frightening.”
Questioned about the failure of many country’s episcopal conferences to adopt the guidelines that the commission has recommended, Father Zollner admitted that “one can wonder why no one takes them to task about this.”
But he observed that “the Church has no means to sanction entire bishops’ conferences.”