Pope Francis’ overhaul of the Roman Curia means that the Church’s central government now has its first safeguarding office. While the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was established a year after Francis’ election, it lacked any official legal status within the Vatican and had scant resources. Its recommendations and initiatives often fell on deaf ears. Tensions burst into the open when Marie Collins and Peter Saunders, both abuse survivors and prominent advocates for victims, resigned in frustration at the slow pace of reform and internal resistance to its work.

It left the Pope and his cardinal advisers with a conundrum as they prepared the new constitution, Praedicate Evangelium (“Preach the Gospel”). Should the anti-abuse office become a part of the Roman Curia or retain “outsider” status and be fully independent? Francis decided to give the commission institutional and legal weight by making it part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (soon to become a “dicastery”). At a meeting with members of the commission here last week he asked them to compile an annual report on what the Church is doing around the world to prevent the abuse of children. The Pope’s decision sends a clear message to the Roman Curia: the commission can no longer be ignored. “It was not possible to have a ‘satellite commission’ circling around but unattached to the organisation chart,” Francis told the commission members. They should see themselves as “independent”, he told them, and they will continue to have their own president and secretary.