POPE TAPS EXPERTS FOR ABUSE SUMMIT

Pope Francis named the Vatican’s top sex abuse investigator and a close U.S. ally to an organizing committee for a February abuse prevention summit that has become a high-stakes credibility test following a new eruption of the scandal in the U.S. and elsewhere this year.

Abuse survivors and women working at the Vatican will also contribute to the committee. Notably absent from the lineup announced Friday was Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads the pope’s sex abuse advisory commission, though one of his members, the Rev. Hans Zollner, is the point-person for the group.