A founding member of the Holy See’s child protection commission has said the body needs new leadership after more questions were raised about its direction.
Baroness Sheila Hollins, among the first raft of individuals appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is a former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and adviser to Church leaders on child protection matters.
“I think it’s time for new leadership of the commission,” Lady Hollins told The Tablet.
“It’s hard to know who has been making the decisions and if the expertise of the commission members is being utilised. It was worrying to see the non-renewal of members in the commission who were making an extraordinary contribution.”
Lady Hollins's comments echo widespread concern in Rome and other survivor groups about the leadership exercised by Fr Andrew Small, the commission secretary, who oversees its day-to-day running. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston is its president.
Born in Liverpool, Fr Small, 55, is a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate who has worked at the US bishops’ conference.
He is a former national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and holds law degrees from Sheffield University and Georgetown. His fundraising skills may have influenced the decision to appoint him the commission’s secretary on a pro tempore basis. He does not have extensive experience in safeguarding.
During Fr Small’s time in office, the commission's membership was overhauled while Fr Hans Zollner, one of the Church’s leading authorities on child protection, resigned from the body.
Last November, The Tablet reported concerns from former commission members, survivors and other Church sources about the direction the commission was going.
The problems identified revolved around a lack of clarity about the commission’s purpose, a leadership that has not been sufficiently collaborative, and whether the commission – part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – is sufficiently independent. Lady Hollins was one of those who expressed her concerns early on.
In March, Fr Zollner said that the commission's shortcomings in “responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency” made him feel he had to “disassociate” from it.
His departure was the most severe blow to the commission since it was set up in 2014 to advise the Pope on safeguarding and pastoral support to survivors.
New problems have now emerged. The Associated Press recently reported that Fr Small had overseen the transfers of at least $17 million (£13.6m) from the Pontifical Mission Societies in the US during his time as its director to an impact investment fund he created and still oversees.
The funds were transferred to Missio Corp and Missio Invest, entities which provide low-interest loans for Church-run initiatives in Africa. The transfers were approved by the then board of the Mission Societies in the US and are entirely legal. Fr Small told AP they had been in the best interests of the Church, and he provided letters from grateful beneficiaries of the loans.
But the new Pontifical Mission Societies US leadership views things very differently. It asked for $10.2 million transferred to Missio Invest to be returned. Its request was turned down, and it has now written off the sum as a loss.
The Pontifical Mission Societies US has since overhauled its board, staffing, rules, and statutes to prevent anything like it from happening again.
Pope Francis has also voiced his concern, appearing to refer to the AP reports when he met the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies on 3 June in the Vatican.
“Please do not reduce the societies to money! They certainly need money, which is a means, but do not reduce them to that, for they are bigger than money,” he said in remarks that were not in his prepared text.
“Yet if spirituality is missing and they become merely a business, then immediately corruption arises,” he said. “Indeed, even in these days, we have seen newspaper reports of alleged corruption having occurred in the name of the Church’s missionary work.”
Mgr Robert Fuhrman, the Chairman of the Missio Invest board of trustees, has defended the transfers. He told The Tablet that Missio Corp/Invest “has grown and has borne much fruit, and the loan repayment has been extraordinarily high” but added that “perhaps we could have celebrated the birth of this new initiative in a more public way”.
Mgr Fuhrman said the investment in Missio Corp/Invest only represented a “single-digit percentage of the total amount” of the Pontifical Mission Societies’ portfolio, emphasising that the “process was done correctly as has been confirmed by others” and that “we know of no board member who thinks otherwise”.
Last year, Fr Small told The Tablet that funding for safeguarding reporting systems in the Global South could come through Missio Invest.
One Church source said the story about Missio Invest should raise alarm bells regarding safeguarding. The transfers may have been legal, but they have reportedly reduced the mission societies’ quasi-endowment significantly. In safeguarding, a mentality that evaluates an action solely by the criteria of whether it is legal has been part of the problem.
Cardinal O’Malley and Fr Small did not reply to requests for comment.
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