Pope's child protection board urges transparency from Vatican sex abuse office and compensation

Pope Francis' child protection board called Tuesday for victims of clergy sexual abuse to have greater access to information about their cases and the right to compensation, in the first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church’s efforts to address the crisis.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors issued a series of findings and recommendations in its pilot annual report, zeroing in on the church in a dozen countries, two religious orders and two Vatican offices with detailed analysis.

In its most critical note, it called for greater transparency from the Vatican’s sex abuse office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It said the office’s slow processing of cases and secrecy were retraumatizing to victims, and its refusal to publish statistics or its own jurisprudence continues "to foment distrust among the faithful, especially the victim/survivor community.”

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the commission's head, acknowledged the church's failure to victims in the past and said the commission would work to continue to address “the unjust suffering that you have endured.”