Scottish Catholic Observer

Members of the pontifical commission have also spoken recently with officials at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains priests for service in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.

Pontifical commission members, who were in Rome in early September, were also set to address the Congregation for Clergy and to speak at seminars for recently appointed bishops; the training seminars are organised by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

Marie Collins, a commission member and survivor of clerical abuse, was scheduled to be one of a number of commission members to address the September 11-18 session of what is commonly referred to as ‘new bishops school’.

Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, a psychologist and commission member, and Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, a longtime abuse investigator, already delivered their talks on abuse by clergy and the importance of protecting minors and vulnerable adults during the early September seminar for bishops newly elected to dioceses in mission lands.

The commission has completed a template meant to help all Church entities — from bishops’ conferences to Catholic associations — in formulating guidelines in preventing and responding appropriately to abuse.

Pope Francis was set to receive the template ‘shortly’, according to the commission press release.

At the request of a clerical abuse survivor from Canada, the commission developed a proposal for a universal Day of Prayer because ‘prayer is one part of the healing process for survivors and the community of believers’ and public gatherings for prayer also help raise awareness about the issue, it said.

Pope Francis received the proposal and has asked “that national bishops’ conferences choose an appropriate day on which to pray for the survivors and victims of sexual abuse as part of a Universal Day of Prayer initiative,” it said.