Angelus News | March 13, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 10

Missing a mother’s touch
Women offer a unique perspective
and urgency to the abuse crisis.
Why aren’t they on the
Vatican’s new task force?
BY INÉS SAN MARTÍN / ANGELUS
ROME — Recently, the Vatican
announced Pope Francis has
created a task force to help bishops’
conferences around the world address
the clerical sex abuse crisis. The
lineup is impressive, but much like a
high-profile February 2019 summit on
child protection, laypeople — women
in particular — are the missing link.
The eight-man lineup for the task
force includes seven clerics, two of
whom are regarded by all sides as part
of the solution to the abuse crisis:
Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna,
once the Vatican’s top prosecutor on
priestly abuse of minors; and German
Father Hans Zollner, SJ, a member of
the Pontifical Commission for the Protection
of Minors and director of the
Center for Child Protection of Rome’s
Gregorian University.
The list also includes the Vatican’s
version of a chief of staff, Venezuelan
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra; Cardinal
Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal
Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, who
sits on the council of cardinals that advises
the pope on reform of the Roman
Curia; Spanish Bishop Juan Ignacio
Arrieta of the Pontifical Council for
Legislative Texts; and Father Federico
Lombardi, SJ, former papal spokesman
for both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope
Francis and the moderator of last year’s
summit.
Last but not least is layman Andrew
Azzopardi, who teaches in the Department
of Youth and Community Studies
at the University of Malta and also
serves on the Safeguarding Commission
of the Ecclesiastical Province of
Malta, making him a protégé of Archbishop
Scicluna. He’s been described
to Crux as a “highly competent man,”
and is the father of three children.
At first glance, there’s little to object
to about the group.
Not one of the members of the task
20 • ANGELUS • March 13, 2020