Pope meets abuse safeguarding commission as Vatican coordinates global reform

Charles Collins/Crux• June 5, 2025

Pope Leo XIV today spent an hour meeting with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) at the Vatican.

The commission was established in 2014 by Pope Francis and has been part of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith since 2022.

In a statement about the meeting on 5 June, the commission said it updated Pope Leo on progress in the Memorare Initiative, a capacity-building program designed to support local churches – particularly in the Global South – in their efforts to protect minors and care for victims of abuse.

The Memorare Initiative works through four pillars: establishing safeguarding infrastructure, promoting prevention through education, establishing global collaboration, and creating strategic communication that empowers local churches to communicate effectively and foster transparency.

“The Memorare Initiative is tailored to each ecclesial context. It respects local autonomy while offering essential support to ensure that all churches, regardless of resources, can uphold their sacred duty to protect the vulnerable,” the statement says.

“Over the past two years, the Commission has undertaken a wide-reaching process to develop a set of Universal Guidelines Framework (UGF) for safeguarding, in close consultation with Church leaders, safeguarding professionals, survivors of abuse and pastoral workers from across the globe.

“This synodal effort has resulted in a draft framework that has been tested and refined through pilot programs in Tonga, Poland, Zimbabwe and Costa Rica. These regional pilots have provided the Commission with invaluable insights into the practical, cultural and theological dimensions of safeguarding.

“These guidelines are not only descriptive – they are deeply theological, rooted in Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching and the magisterium of Popes Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV. They seek to inspire a true conversion of heart in every leader and pastoral agent in the Church, ensuring that safeguarding becomes not merely a requirement, but a reflection of the Gospel’s call to protect the least among us.”

The PCPM has had a rocky history since its founding, with Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins resigning from the organisation in frustration in 2017 over what she claimed was Vatican stonewalling on the Commission’s proposals.

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner left his post at the commission in 2023, citing a host of problems inside the commission and its relationship with the Vatican bureaucracy.

“One thing is certain,” the priest told journalists, “several members have left the Pontifical Commission before me and there has been no shortage of criticisms recently expressed publicly by past members, some quite strong.”

Speaking to Vatican Radio on Thursday, Cardinal Seán O’Malley – the Archbishop emeritus of Boston and the founding leader of the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors – said it was a “great privilege” to lead the commission for so many years.

He added: “So, we’ve had really sort of three iterations. There have been three groups of people that have made up the commission, representing individuals from all over the globe, many with extensive backgrounds in child protection.

“And we’ve always had victim survivors and parents of survivors as members of the commission. And that has been very, very valuable in keeping what we’re doing real and in contact with the survivor community and to understand their experiences and their experiences of how the Church has reacted to them and dealt with the problems of clergy abuse in the Church.”

He told Vatican Radio that the priorities of the commission under Pope Leo “are the same as ever”.

“We’re trying to put the victims and their families first,” O’Malley said. “But certainly, transparency [is vital]; in the past, the worst…actions of the Church were covering up the crimes, not reporting them. So, working with the civil authorities is a very, very important step forward.”

Transparency, he said, comes from “letting people know what’s happening; a sense of responsibility; and the importance of a whole educational process in the Church, so that people realise that the Church, by our very mission, needs to be an expression of God’s love and mercy, and therefore the care and protection of the children and young people needs to be central in our mission”.

The cardinal said that in the global South, “many of the countries are just beginning to grapple with this, and the commission is particularly focused on trying to help them”, adding that people will listen to the Church’s message “only if they are convinced that we care about them”.

He emphasised: “We care about their children. We care about the safety of their children.”

The cardinal also said that he believes that the declarations of popes on abuse “have been very important”, along with other institutions speaking out on the crisis.

“Obviously, the secular media and even the Church media have been very instrumental in making these issues known to people. Certainly, it’s been very painful, but an important process. The truth is what will set us free, as the Gospels say. And so the role of the media has been very, very important,” O’Malley told Vatican Radio.

“Very often that was met with scepticism on the part of Catholics: ‘Oh, this is anti-Catholicism.’ Or, ‘It’s all about money’ or ‘These are lies.’ So when the Holy Fathers have weighed in and calling for transparency and asking for forgiveness and meeting with victims, that has helped to raise the awareness of the Catholics and people throughout the world.

“And although so much attention has been given to the Church, recently, at least in the [United] States, a lot of attention has been given to the Scouts, public schools, or sporting groups. And so it is a human problem,” the cardinal continued.

“But those of us who are in the Church see how terrible it is when this takes place within the Church; the kind of betrayal that people feel of their religious sentiments and their devotion and faith.

“And so there’s another dimension that, in many ways, makes the abuse even more horrible,” O’Malley said.

Photo: Pope Leo XIV with Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors, at the Vatican, 5 June 2025. (Credit: Vatican Media, via Crux.)