Vatican Commission Leadership Have Doubt Cast By Advocates Of Sexual Abuse Survivors
If nothing else, the Vatican and the papacy should be targeted as foreign enemies to the united States of America and every country on the earth for their diabolical, tyrannical doctrines and wicked behavior. Not only do they employee the unbiblical demand that there be men and women who don’t marry, but we have seen, as a result of this call to celibacy, many priests, cardinals, bishops and even popes engage in the most depraved acts, including with children. Now, the Vatican ‘s clergy abuse commission is having doubt cast upon it by advocates of sexual abuse survivors, and for good reason.
I’d highly recommend, if you have never read it, A Woman Rides The Beast by Dave Hunt for some amazing history on this subject, and also the work of Johnny Cirucci regarding the evil of the papacy and the sexual exploitation of the Vatican throughout the ages.
Vatican Correspondent Christopher White reports:
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Leading Catholic sexual abuse experts, survivors and survivor advocates are questioning the suitability of the priest who leads the Vatican’s clergy abuse commission, following an investigation that has raised significant questions about his record of financial transparency and accountability.
Oblate Fr. Andrew Small “should be gone — voluntarily or forcefully,” David Clohessy, longtime executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in reaction to a May 31 Associated Press report.
The Associated Press investigation revealed that under Small’s leadership as former U.S. director of the Pontifical Mission Societies at least $17 million was transferred from the Vatican’s U.S.-based missionary fundraising entity into an impact investing operation created by Small. The priest continues to run the investment organization while also serving as the No. 2 official at the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
“What pains me the most is that of all the positions of power and authority in the church, the commission appointees need to be the most scrupulously vetted and completely above reproach,” Clohessy told NCR.
Clohessy isn’t alone in voicing his anger at the priest’s alleged misdealings. Three days after the report was published, Pope Francis went off script when speaking to a gathering of the Vatican’s missionary fundraisers to warn of the risk of corruption among their ranks.
“If spirituality is lacking and it’s only a matter of entrepreneurship, corruption comes in immediately,” the pope said June 3. “And we have seen that even today: In the newspapers, you see so many stories of alleged corruption in the name of the missionary nature of the church.”
Around the Vatican, including among those inside that meeting, it was widely understood that the pope’s remarks were in reference to Small. NCR has since confirmed that the pope directly referred to the Associated Press article in a meeting with Spanish journalists earlier that same day.
Small, who has strongly defended his financial dealings, did not respond to NCR’s request for comment.
“The church’s response in the past has been slow and not really centered on the care of survivors,” said Jesuit Fr. Gerald McGlone, who leads the “Towards a Global Culture of Safeguarding” project at Georgetown University.
“There are multiple issues of trust here that really have to be addressed quickly,” McGlone said of the commission.
A loss of millions
When the British-born Small was appointed to serve as acting secretary of the Vatican’s abuse commission in June 2021, he arrived in Rome with little experience in child protection, but a background in fundraising and advising the U.S. bishops on foreign policy.
The commission was founded in 2014 with a mandate to counsel the pope on child abuse prevention and accountability measures, but has suffered a series of setbacks, including a number of high-profile resignations of its members who believed the Vatican was resisting implementing necessary reforms.
Small’s appointment marked the beginning of a new era. Under his leadership, the commission added 10 new members and reappointed 10 existing members last September.
In March of this year, abuse survivors and former commission members alike were shocked when Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner — a psychologist long considered one of the church’s leading authorities on combating abuse — resigned as one of the commission’s founding members and cited, among other grievances, concerns about financial transparency and the commission’s leadership.
Two months later, the Associated Press report was published, questioning how Small was able to transfer millions of dollars from the coffers of the U.S. branch of the Pontifical Mission Societies into a nonprofit, Missio Corp., and its private equity fund, MISIF LLC, both of which were created and managed by Small.
While the transfers were legal and approved by Small’s board, they have forced the Pontifical Mission Societies’ U.S. branch to write off a financial loss of more than $10 million and overhaul its staff and board in order to strengthen accountability measures.
Matthew Manion, director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, said that it appears that the initial decisions by Small followed standard practice at the time and that he hoped and expected the board did “their due diligence before approving such a significant transaction.”
But Manion also said that the fact that Small was unwilling to cooperate with his former employer, the Pontifical Mission Societies, in its legal review of the transactions, as was reported by the Associated Press, raises concerns.
“While these transactions may be perfectly legitimate, the fact that the leader of a major church organization could not just call up his predecessor to get any questions answered is concerning,” he told NCR via email. “And if it is true that a senior church official responsible for the Protection of Minors was not willing to speak to lawyers doing an investigation of his prior employer, the optics are not good for a church that already struggles with credibility issues.”
In his assessment of the case, Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former chair of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board, said that given the fact that Small is a religious order priest, he would have needed the approval of his provincial superior for the creation of the new entities of the nonprofit and the private equity fund.
Under canon law, he said, “anything that involves administration of goods, he needs permission for.”
Neither the general secretariat of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Rome nor the Washington, D.C., provincialate responded to NCR’s request for comment on whether Small sought and received approval for the creation of these entities.
Calls for investigation
In the days since the Associated Press report was published and Francis’ impromptu follow-up comments, former commission members and noted abuse experts have called for a serious review of the commission’s current leadership.
Krysten Winter-Green, a former commission member, characterized the report on Small’s past financial dealings as “troublesome” and said they merited further investigation.
Since the founding of the commission in 2014, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley — a top adviser to Francis — has served as its president. While O’Malley regularly travels to Rome, the day-to-day management of the commission falls to Small, who is based in Rome.
Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media