Zollner accuses the Vatican commission to prevent abuses of lack of transparency

Some resignations carry more weight than others.

And the slam of the door given by Father Hans Zollner, one of the world's leading experts in the fight against child abuse in the Church, on March 29, still resonates on the other side of the Tiber.

The Jesuit decided to leave the Vatican commission that the Pope created upon his arrival to prevent these cases, alleging certain disagreements with its operations.

And on Monday afternoon, the Jesuit gave a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome to clarify his motives.

Basically, Zollner summed up his dismissal in three key absences in what he believes the fight against abuses should be based on: responsibility, transparency and compliance.

Zollner, questioned further on these grounds, thus summed up the impact they have on the commission he has abandoned.

“The role of each one is not clear.

I understand that there are many new things.

But if one does not know what he is responsible for, if he is not clear about the limits of his work and what he should deal with or who should be addressed above him and under what criteria, confusion is created.

And that creates difficulties, not only in the work of compliance (compliance), but in transparency, ”he pointed out.

The difficulties grow in a field of struggle, he pointed out, which affects the entire planet.

“Here you have to overcome important cultural barriers.

And if there are gray areas, it is impossible to know who is responsible for each task.

And that, unfortunately, is something that has happened in the Church for a long time.

I'm not saying what happens in the commission,

The decision was considered.

And it came after months of failed attempts to receive answers.

Zollner repeatedly complained, he told the press conference, to the corresponding bodies through a series of emails that were never returned.

“I tried to show my perplexity about some things that I have pointed out in my statement.

I would have preferred another path, but the way the communication on March 29 occurred [on the day the Vatican announced his resignation], it confirmed to me that I could not have done otherwise, ”he declared.

“They sent me proposals in which they dressed my decision in pink.

I could not consent to it, ”he added, referring to the decision to launch a press release on his behalf that explained his vision.

The reasons given by Zollner on the day of his resignation were, fundamentally, his disagreement with the organization and functioning of the papal entity.

“There is a lack of clarity about the selection process for members and staff, about their respective roles and responsibilities;

and another area of ​​concern is financial responsibility and accountability, which I think is inadequate.

It is crucial that the Commission clearly shows the use of the funds in its work, ”he denounced in the statement.

Zollner, a straight and strict man in this fight who has always spoken very clearly, also assured that "there should be transparency on how decisions are made within the commission."

The Jesuit, who has spent more than a decade focused on the fight against sexual abuse in the Church, also expressed his impression of what many of the victims of the work that is done behind closed doors think.

“Many victims in the Church no longer expect anything.

But there are many others, less public, who want to find just once a human image of the Church.

And the biggest pain for me is that very often they don't find it”.

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