Abuse survivor quits pope’s panel over stonewalling

Frustrated by what she described as Vatican stonewalling, an Irish woman who was sexually abused by clergy quit her post Wednesday on a panel advising Pope Francis about how to protect minors from such abuse.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said Marie Collins quit out of “frustration” at an alleged lack of co-operation from other Vatican offices, known as the Curia.

Her departure delivered another blow to the Vatican’s insistence it is working to ensure no more children are abused by predator priests.

Collins, in a statement carried by the National Catholic Reporter, was damning in her criticism.

She decried the “cultural resistance” at the Vatican that she said included some officials refusing the pope’s instructions to reply to all correspondence from abuse survivors.

“I find it impossible to listen to public statements about the deep concern in the church for the care of those who lives have been blighted by abuse, yet to watch privately as a congregation (office) in the Vatican refuses to even acknowledge these letters!” Collins said in her statement.

She called “the reluctance of some in the Vatican Curia to implement recommendations or co-operate” with the panel aiming to better protect against abuse by priests “unacceptable.”