By Nicole Winfield, May 13, 2017<\/p>\n
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) \u2014 Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Vatican has a 2,000-case backlog in processing clerical sex abuse cases and says criticism of the slow pace was justified. But he says more staff are being added and insists the Vatican is \u201con the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis was making his first comments about the criticism leveled at the Vatican\u2019s handling of sex abuse cases by Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from Francis\u2019 sex abuse advisory commission in March. Collins quit because of what she said was the \u201cunacceptable\u201d level of resistance within the Vatican to implementing the group\u2019s proposals to better care for victims and protect children from priests who rape and molest them.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters while flying home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis called Collins \u201ca great woman\u201d and said she was \u201ca bit right\u201d to complain about the slow pace in processing cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarie Collins was right on that point. But we are on the right path, as there were 2,000 cases backlogged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Francis didn\u2019t respond to the other issues raised by Collins, including the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith \u2014 which handles abuse cases \u2014 to create a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests. Instead, he focused on explaining why cases can take so long to process.<\/p>\n
To improve efficiency, he said he had added more staff to the congregation and that talks were underway about providing more regional help to bishops to ensure their cases are properly documented before they arrive at the Vatican for review.<\/p>\n
He denied he had ever agreed to a request for clemency from a pedophile priest, saying once a sentence is confirmed on appeal by the congregation \u201cit is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis has come under fire from some survivors and their advocates for his handling of the abuse crisis.<\/p>\n
He won praise for having created the advisory commission and for promising \u201czero tolerance\u201d for abuse. But his advisory board has lost credibility following Collins\u2019 departure and its failure to implement key recommendations that even Francis had approved.<\/p>\n