Cleaning House 
 
 Pope Francis named Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley, a psychotherapist, and four women—one of them raped by a priest—to deal with child abuse in the Catholic Church. 
 
 Some things are worth the wait. At least that is the hope when it comes to Pope Francis’s surprisingly well-rounded new commission appointed to deal with the ongoing priest sex abuse problem in the global Catholic Church. The commission, announced Saturday by the Holy See press office, is made up of four women, one of whom is a victim of sex abuse by a priest, and four men – only three of whom are clerics. 
 
 The highest-ranking church official on the commission is Cardinal Sean O’Malley who was a front-runner in the papal conclave that finally elected Pope Francis a year ago. 
 
 The other clerics are an Argentine priest Pope Francis shepherded through the Jesuit ranks in his home country and a German priest who is also a licensed psychotherapist. According to Vatican spokesperson Father Thomas Rosica, the Argentine, Humberto Miguel Yáñez, is a professor of moral theology who spearheaded the Symposium on the Sex Abuse of Minors two years ago. German Hans Zollner leads the Centre for Child Protection at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. 
 
 The more surprising members of the group are the female members. Marie Collins is a married Irish woman who was raped at the age of 13 by a priest. She is an activist for child safety within the Catholic Church and has been vocal about how she was snubbed by her local parish and told to “protect the priest’s good name” when she accused him. Francis also appointed noted French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, who has written extensively about child sex abuse, and Baroness Sheila Hollins from the United Kingdom who is an expert in mental health. 
 
 In what is seen as a nod to the late Pope John Paul II, Francis also named the Polish ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka, who is a constitutional law professor and former prime minister of Poland and the winner of several awards for her work on human rights. 
 
 The group’s final member is Italian canon law professor Claudio Papale, who specializes in crimes against morality. The Vatican was quick to point out that Papale, Collins and Hollins are all married. 
 
 Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that the announcement of the new commission, coming after Friday’s highly publicized prayer vigil against organized crime and before the beginning of Easter celebrations was by design. “Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst her highest priorities,” Lombardi said in a statement. “This initial group is now called to work expeditiously to assist in several tasks, including: participating in the deliberations concerning the Commission’s final structure; describing the scope of its responsibilities; and developing the names of additional candidates, especially from other continents and countries, who can offer service to the Commission.” 
 
 The announcement follows stark criticism of Pope Francis for dragging his heels on this extremely controversial issue. Writing in the Boston Globe, Vatican expert John Allen points out an interview Francis gave to an Italian newspaper in which he actually defended the church’s record on abuse, saying the Catholic Church “is perhaps the lone public institution to have moved with transparency and responsibility . . . yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.” 
 
 The comment prompted an angry response from victims and a document dump by the group Bishop Accountability, which tracks errant bishops who shuffle predator priests from parish to parish for their protection. The group cited Francis’s record in five alleged abuse cases when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. According to the database, “he released no documents, no names of accused priests, no tallies of accused priests, no policy for handling abuse, not even an apology to victims.” ||||| VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis named the initial members of a commission to advise him on sex abuse policy Saturday, signaling an openness to reach beyond church officials to plot the commission's course and priorities: Half of the members are women, and one was assaulted by a priest as a child. 
 
 The eight members were announced after Francis came under fire from victims' groups for a perceived lack of attention to the abuse scandal, which has seriously damaged the Catholic Church's reputation around the world and cost dioceses and religious orders billions of dollars in legal fees and settlements. 
 
 The Vatican in December announced that Francis would create the commission to advise the church on best policies to protect children, train church personnel and keep abusers out of the clergy. But no details had been released until Saturday and it remains unknown if the commission will deal with the critical issue of disciplining bishops who cover up for abusers. 
 
 In a statement, the Vatican hinted that it might, saying the commission would look into both "civil and canonical duties and responsibilities" for church personnel. Canon law does provide for sanctions if a bishop is negligent in carrying out his duties, but such punishments have never been imposed on a bishop for failing to report a pedophile priest to police. 
 
 The eight inaugural members include Marie Collins, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland and has gone on to become a prominent campaigner for accountability in the church. 
 
 Also named was Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of Francis' key advisers and the archbishop of Boston, where the U.S. scandal erupted in 2002. 
 
 Two other members are professors at Rome's Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University, which in 2012 hosted a seminar for bishops from around the world to educate them on best practices to protect children. Several participants from that conference are now founding members of Francis' commission, including Baroness Sheila Hollins, a British psychiatrist. 
 
 During that 2012 conference, Collins told the bishops of her own ordeal, of the hospitalizations, anxiety and depression she endured after Irish church authorities didn't believe her when she reported her attacker, and then blamed her for the assault. 
 
 "I was treated as someone with an agenda against the church, the police investigation was obstructed and the laity misled. I was distraught," Collins said at the time, calling for bishops to be held accountable when they don't report abusers to law enforcement. 
 
 The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the institution of the commission was evidence that Francis believed "the church must hold the protection of minors among her highest priorities." 
 
 But in a March 5 interview with Corriere della Sera, Francis appeared defensive about the issue, complaining that the church had been unfairly attacked. 
 
 He acknowledged the "profound" wounds abuse leaves and credited Pope Benedict XVI with turning the church around. Benedict in 2001 took over handling abuse cases because bishops were moving pedophiles around rather than punishing them. In his final two years as pope he defrocked nearly 400 abusive priests. 
 
 But Francis then added: "The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more. And yet the church is the only one that has been attacked." 
 
 Collins' appointment to the panel was hailed by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has clashed both with the Vatican and his fellow bishops in demanding greater accountability and honesty about abuse. SNAP, the main U.S. victim's group also praised her inclusion but said the pope doesn't need another study panel, he just needs to oust complicit bishops. 
 
 "He's had more than a year to defrock, demote, discipline or denounce even one of them," said SNAP's outreach director Barbara Dorris in a statement. "But, just like his predecessors, he refuses to take this simple but crucial step toward justice, healing and prevention." 
 
 The initial group named Saturday will define the scope, statutes and priorities of the commission and propose other members to better reflect the church's geographic diversity. 
 
 Other members include: 
 
 —Catherine Bonnet, a French consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry. 
 
 —Claudio Papale, an Italian canon lawyer and official of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases. 
 
 —Poland's recently departed longtime ambassador to the Vatican, Hanna Suchocka, a constitutional lawyer. 
 
 —The Rev. Humberto Miguel Yanez, an Argentine Jesuit who studied with Francis as a seminarian and currently is head of moral theology at the Gregorian. 
 
 —The Rev. Hans Zollner, the vice-rector of the Gregorian, a Jesuit psychologist and psychotherapist who organized the Gregorian seminar and also serves on the German government's roundtable on child abuse. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield ||||| ROME, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- A newly released Catholic church document tells bishops they don't have to report clerical child abuse accusations to the police. 
 
 In laying out how newly appointed senior members of the clergy should deal with abuse allegations, the Vatican said bishops must be aware of local laws but their only duty was to deal with cases internally. 
 
 "According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds," the training guide states. 
 
 The Church's policy was first reported Feb. 7 by Vatican journalist John Allen, associate editor of the Cruxnow.com Catholic news site. The Vatican released the bishop training guidelines at an early February press conference, asking for feedback. 
 
 Victims groups reacted angrily to the edict, written by a French monsignor, despite Pope Francis declaring "everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse." 
 
 The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the special commission created by the Pope, apparently wasn't involved in putting together the guidelines, despite its designed role to develop protocols for dealing with and preventing the clerical abuse of children. 
 
 Wayne Chamley of the victims advocate group Broken Rites said the document was "unfathomable and yet it does not surprise me." 
 
 Nicky Davis, of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said clergy should be legally obliged to report suspected abuse. 
 
 "Their systems function to protect the interests of the institution," she said. "They don't put the protection of children first." 
 
 The guidelines were written by French monsignor and psychotherapist Tony Anatrella, who has run into controversy previously for promoting the belief that children are being harmed by the growing acceptance of homosexuality in Western society.
– Pope Francis has created a commission to advise him on priest sex abuse, but it's unclear whether the group will wield any power against abusers and bishops who cover up for them, report the Daily Beast and the AP. The commission consists of four men, three of whom are priests, and four women, all laity, one of whom was sexually abused by a priest and advocates for child safety in the Catholic Church. Another woman, French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, has written at length about child sex abuse. But it's not clear exactly what the commission will do—Pope Francis preferred to let its members work out the details, the Boston Globe reports. Broadly speaking, the commission will advise on policies that safeguard children, keep abusers from becoming priests, and train members of the church. Francis created the commission after remarks he made defending the church's record on abuse led to a political firestorm, with one group accusing him of stonewalling on five alleged abuse cases as archbishop in Buenos Aires. And critics are still skeptical: "They do not need yet another 'Study Commission,'" said a victim advocacy group. "The pope must take strong steps right now to protect kids, expose predators, discipline enablers, and uncover cover-ups." (For more, see why Francis called some priests "little monsters.")