VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has revived his lapsed sex abuse advisory commission by naming new members, after coming under fire for his overall handling of the scandal and his support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.
Saturday’s announcement of the new membership of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors came on the same day that a Vatican investigator will take the testimony in New York of one of the main whistleblowers in the Chilean cover-up scandal.
The initial three-year mandate of commission members had lapsed on Dec. 17. Francis named nine new members Saturday and kept seven from the initial group. A Vatican statement said survivors of abuse are included in the group, but didn’t identify them to protect their privacy.
