Vatican launches website to help protect minors from abuse

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has launched a website as part of its efforts to protect children from clerical sexual abuse and promote healing and reconciliation.

It’s the first time that the Vatican has published resources and documents on the issue, and the site is sponsored by the commission set up by Pope Francis to protect minors.

“It is very important for the commission to have a means to communicate,” Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor and commission member, told Religion News Service.

The commission was established by the pope in 2013 and is headed by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

The new website includes a template for local churches seeking to protect minors from clerical sex abuse, guidelines on how to handle complaints and options for education and healing.

It also provides news and information about the commission in an easily accessible format and promotes greater sharing of information within the church.

“Awareness is so important, anything that encourages people to come forward and seek help,” Collins said. “This is very important to me as a survivor.”

The site is in Eng- lish and will eventually have versions in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. It includes contact details for the commission, which hopes to promote awareness, especially in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where the problem has not received as much attention.

When the pope created the commission he tasked it with advising him on effective policies for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults as well as educational programs for all who are involved in this work.

He has spoken out against clerical abuse several times and in February 2015 said the church needed to rid itself of the “scourge” of sex abuse.