Pope renews commission on sexual abuse, Vatican promises victims more say
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis renewed a commission on clergy sexual abuse on Saturday, confirming a US cardinal as its head, as the Vatican promised to give victims a greater say in its work.
The renewal of the commission and the confirmation of Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston as its head comes as the pope is dealing with an abuse scandal in Chile that has created one of the greatest image crises of his papacy, which marks its fifth anniversary next month..
The first, three-year mandate of the commission ended in December and its future had been uncertain.
Its first term was marred by two high-profile resignations, that of Marie Collins of Ireland and Peter Saunders of Britain. Both were victims of clergy sexual abuse when they were young and both stepped down in what they said was frustration over lack of change and insufficient cooperation by top Vatican officials.
A Vatican statement said victims of sexual abuse were among the members but that it was up to them to decide to disclose this outside the 16-member international commission, made up of nine new members and seven returning ones.
It said plans were at an advanced stage to create a group made up of victims of sexual abuse known as the International Survivor Advisory Panel (ISAP) to offer consultation on “abuse prevention from the survivor’s perspective”.
The mandate of the commission, which includes lay academics and psychologists, priests and nuns, is to promote best practice initiatives and educational programmes to protect minors and vulnerable adults in local Catholic institutions around the world.
Its experts come from the United States, Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Tonga, Germany, Brazil, Poland, South Africa, the Philippines, and Zambia. Ten are non-clerics and eight are women, including three nuns.
Francis has been under fire for remarks he made last month in Chile. NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s federal police detained two employees of Punjab National Bank, the state-run lender that says it has been the victim of a $1.77 billion fraud, in the first arrests in a fastwidening probe into the country’s biggest-ever bank scam.
Gokulnath Shetty and Manoj Kharat are suspected of steering fraudulent loans to companies linked to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and entities tied to jewellery retailer Gitanjali, which is led by Modi’s uncle, Mehul Choksi.
India’s Income Tax department warned in an internal note seen by Reuters that domestic banks could take a hit of more than $3 billion from loans and corporate guarantees provided to Modi and Choksi.
The arrests, late on Friday, came two days after India’s second-largest state-run lender said it had been hit by massive fraud, sending its share price tumbling. The accusations against the two relatively junior PNB officials were detailed in the lender’s disclosure, and also contained in a preliminary police report.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also arrested a third person, Hemant Bhat, whom a source described as the “authorised signatory” of the companies tied to Nirav Modi.
All three appeared before a hot, packed courtroom in Mumbai on Saturday afternoon, where they were ordered to remain under police custody until March 3 to allow the CBI to continue its investigation. No charges have yet been laid.
“CBI must get fair chance to investigate this very serious offence, which has consequences for the country’s economy,” said judge S R Tamboli, as PNB employee Shetty shifted nervously and blinked frequently. The other two stood passively.
Family members of the accused present at the court defended them, saying they were innocent.
Kharat’s uncle told Reuters the PNB employee was “just following orders of superiors” and added “he wasn’t aware of what he is doing”.
A police source said six more PNB employees were “being examined” after the CBI conducted additional searches at the PNB’s branch in southern Mumbai where the alleged fraud took place.
Police sources say Modi, whose high-end jewellery has been worn by Hollywood stars including Kate Winslet, and Choksi left India last month and their whereabouts are unknown. Neither Modi nor Choksi have so far commented on the allegations.