Cleaning House 
 
 Pope Francis named Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley, a psychotherapist, and four women—one of them raped by a priest—to deal with child abuse in the Catholic Church. 
 
 Some things are worth the wait. At least that is the hope when it comes to Pope Francis’s surprisingly well-rounded new commission appointed to deal with the ongoing priest sex abuse problem in the global Catholic Church. The commission, announced Saturday by the Holy See press office, is made up of four women, one of whom is a victim of sex abuse by a priest, and four men – only three of whom are clerics. 
 
 The highest-ranking church official on the commission is Cardinal Sean O’Malley who was a front-runner in the papal conclave that finally elected Pope Francis a year ago. 
 
 The other clerics are an Argentine priest Pope Francis shepherded through the Jesuit ranks in his home country and a German priest who is also a licensed psychotherapist. According to Vatican spokesperson Father Thomas Rosica, the Argentine, Humberto Miguel Yáñez, is a professor of moral theology who spearheaded the Symposium on the Sex Abuse of Minors two years ago. German Hans Zollner leads the Centre for Child Protection at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. 
 
 The more surprising members of the group are the female members. Marie Collins is a married Irish woman who was raped at the age of 13 by a priest. She is an activist for child safety within the Catholic Church and has been vocal about how she was snubbed by her local parish and told to “protect the priest’s good name” when she accused him. Francis also appointed noted French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, who has written extensively about child sex abuse, and Baroness Sheila Hollins from the United Kingdom who is an expert in mental health. 
 
 In what is seen as a nod to the late Pope John Paul II, Francis also named the Polish ambassador to the Holy See, Hanna Suchocka, who is a constitutional law professor and former prime minister of Poland and the winner of several awards for her work on human rights. 
 
 The group’s final member is Italian canon law professor Claudio Papale, who specializes in crimes against morality. The Vatican was quick to point out that Papale, Collins and Hollins are all married. 
 
 Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that the announcement of the new commission, coming after Friday’s highly publicized prayer vigil against organized crime and before the beginning of Easter celebrations was by design. “Pope Francis has made clear that the Church must hold the protection of minors amongst her highest priorities,” Lombardi said in a statement. “This initial group is now called to work expeditiously to assist in several tasks, including: participating in the deliberations concerning the Commission’s final structure; describing the scope of its responsibilities; and developing the names of additional candidates, especially from other continents and countries, who can offer service to the Commission.” 
 
 The announcement follows stark criticism of Pope Francis for dragging his heels on this extremely controversial issue. Writing in the Boston Globe, Vatican expert John Allen points out an interview Francis gave to an Italian newspaper in which he actually defended the church’s record on abuse, saying the Catholic Church “is perhaps the lone public institution to have moved with transparency and responsibility . . . yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.” 
 
 The comment prompted an angry response from victims and a document dump by the group Bishop Accountability, which tracks errant bishops who shuffle predator priests from parish to parish for their protection. The group cited Francis’s record in five alleged abuse cases when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. According to the database, “he released no documents, no names of accused priests, no tallies of accused priests, no policy for handling abuse, not even an apology to victims.” ||||| Cardinal Sean O'Malley was among eight people, including four women, named by the pope to a panel to guide the Vatican’s anti-abuse inquiries. 
 
 Pope Francis on Saturday named Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and seven other figures with reputations as reformers to guide a new Vatican antiabuse commission, a move intended to demonstrate resolve about confronting the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism. 
 
 O’Malley, already the lone American on the pope’s “G8” council of cardinal advisers, is also the lone American among the commission members announced Saturday. O’Malley’s new responsibility is not a full-time position, meaning he will not move to Rome and will continue to serve as the archbishop of Boston. 
 
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 The lineup for the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors also includes Irish laywoman Marie Collins, who has said she was raped at the age of 13 by a hospital chaplain. When she tried to report the abuse years later, she said, she was told by church officials that “protecting the good name” of the priest was more important than remedying a “historical” wrong. 
 
 Collins has acquired an international reputation as a campaigner for the rights of abuse victims. 
 
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 The pope tapped three clergy and five laity, including four women. The panel’s members come from eight countries, with seven from Europe or the United States. 
 
 Though early reaction suggests some critics of the church’s response to the abuse scandals see the announcement as a public relations exercise, a Vatican spokesman said it reflects the late Pope John Paul II’s statement that “there is no place in the priesthood or religious life for those who would harm the young.” 
 
 In a sign of personal interest, Pope Francis also named a fellow Argentine and Jesuit priest, the Rev. Humberto Miguel Yáñez, who was received by the future pope into the Jesuit order in 1975 and who studied under him at an Argentine Jesuit college. He is seen as having direct access to the pontiff. 
 
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 The other members announced Saturday are: 
 
 ■ The Rev. Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit and the academic vice rector of the Gregorian University in Rome and head of its Institute of Psychology. Zollner coordinated a major antiabuse conference in Rome in 2012 called “Toward Healing and Renewal.” 
 
 ■ Hanna Suchocka, a former prime minister of Poland and Poland’s former ambassador to the Vatican. 
 
 ■ Claudio Papale, an Italian lay expert on church law who teaches at Rome’s Pontifical Urbaniana University. 
 
 ■ Catherine Bonnet, a French child psychologist who has written widely on the effects of sexual abuse and exploitation on children. 
 
 ■ Baroness Sheila Hollins, a former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and current president of the British Medical Association who has frequently consulted on child development issues in the United Kingdom. 
 
 People not authorized to speak on the record told the Globe that Francis chose not to issue a legal document providing a structure and mandate for the new commission, preferring to allow the people he has put in charge to work out those details. The initial group will also make recommendations to the pope for additional members “from various geographical regions of the world.” 
 
 While plans originally called for the antiabuse body to be housed within the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Saturday’s announcement suggests it will have a more independent profile reporting directly to the pope. 
 
 The announcement comes at a time when Francis had been facing mounting criticism for a perceived blind spot on the abuse scandals. 
 
 In early March, the pontiff gave an interview to an Italian newspaper in which he seemed defensive about criticism of the church’s record, saying it “is perhaps the lone public institution to have moved with transparency and responsibility . . . yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.” 
 
 Just days later, the American advocacy group BishopAccountability.org released records purporting to show that the future pope had failed to act aggressively on five cases involving priests accused of abuse in Argentina, though only one of those priests was actually ever under his direct authority. 
 
 People who were not authorized to speak on the record said Francis took a personal interest in the makeup of the antiabuse commission, phoning subordinates in the Vatican in order to work out the timing of the announcement. 
 
 The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the main American advocacy group for victims, released a statement Saturday welcoming the choice of Collins but voicing suspicion that the commission “will be more about public relations than real change.” 
 
 “Catholic officials have concealed child sex crimes for centuries and still are concealing child sex crimes,” the statement said. “They do not need yet another ‘Study Commission.’ The pope must take strong steps right now to protect kids, expose predators, discipline enablers, and uncover cover-ups.” 
 
 In part, Francis’ choice of O’Malley may reflect that he is the American cardinal closest to the pope, being the only one to have stayed in Francis’ residence in Buenos Aires before his election. In part, however, it also probably reflects that the Boston prelate has one of the most complete résumés of any senior church official in dealing with the abuse crisis. 
 
 His experience began in the Fall River, Mass., diocese in 1992, where he took over amid a scandal centering on the Rev. James Porter, who was convicted of molesting 28 children and confessed to abusing at least 100 over a 30-year period. In 2002, O’Malley moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where he followed two different bishops who resigned after acknowledging offenses against minors. 
 
 One year later, O’Malley succeeded the controversial Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, eventually settling more than 100 abuse claims against the archdiocese and touting a “zero-tolerance” policy. He has led penitential liturgies apologizing to abuse victims around the world and called for new procedures to hold bishops accountable if they fail to respond aggressively to abuse claims. 
 
 While SNAP calls O’Malley’s record, including his refusal to issue a complete list of names of accused Boston priests, “deeply flawed,” the archdiocese on his watch has gone from the global epicenter of the abuse crisis to a venue seen in many Catholic circles as an example of essentially successful recovery. 
 
 O’Malley declined a Globe request to speak about his role on the commission beyond what was in the Vatican announcement. In an early February interview with the Globe, however, O’Malley discussed the commission and Francis’ broader approach to the abuse crisis. 
 
 “He’s certainly aware of how serious this issue is,” O’Malley said of the new pope at that time. “I don’t think he has a plan yet for how to deal with it.” 
 
 O’Malley suggested that one important function of the new commission might be working with national-level conferences of bishops around the world to ensure that they have all implemented antiabuse guidelines. 
 
 The aim of that effort, he said, is “to have some clarity about what the expectations are throughout the world.” 
 
 O’Malley also suggested that the commission might be able to make progress on what many critics charge is the most serious piece of unfinished business from the crisis, which is holding bishops accountable if they fail to apply the church’s official “zero-tolerance” policy. 
 
 Critics point, for instance, to Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was found guilty in September 2012 of a misdemeanor charge of failure to report a priest accused of abuse and yet remains in office. Finn was acquitted of a second charge. 
 
 “I hope this commission will help the church develop protocols, so there will be a very clear path to follow” in such cases, O’Malley said. He added that it would likely not be the commission’s job to investigate individual cases, but rather to help develop procedures the pope can apply when charges arise that a bishop has failed to respond appropriately. 
 
 The new commission is expected to meet two or three times a year, with members staying in touch by phone and e-mail in the meantime. ||||| VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis named the initial members of a commission to advise him on sex abuse policy Saturday, signaling an openness to reach beyond church officials to plot the commission's course and priorities: Half of the members are women, and one was assaulted by a priest as a child. 
 
 The eight members were announced after Francis came under fire from victims' groups for a perceived lack of attention to the abuse scandal, which has seriously damaged the Catholic Church's reputation around the world and cost dioceses and religious orders billions of dollars in legal fees and settlements. 
 
 The Vatican in December announced that Francis would create the commission to advise the church on best policies to protect children, train church personnel and keep abusers out of the clergy. But no details had been released until Saturday and it remains unknown if the commission will deal with the critical issue of disciplining bishops who cover up for abusers. 
 
 In a statement, the Vatican hinted that it might, saying the commission would look into both "civil and canonical duties and responsibilities" for church personnel. Canon law does provide for sanctions if a bishop is negligent in carrying out his duties, but such punishments have never been imposed on a bishop for failing to report a pedophile priest to police. 
 
 The eight inaugural members include Marie Collins, who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland and has gone on to become a prominent campaigner for accountability in the church. 
 
 Also named was Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of Francis' key advisers and the archbishop of Boston, where the U.S. scandal erupted in 2002. 
 
 Two other members are professors at Rome's Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University, which in 2012 hosted a seminar for bishops from around the world to educate them on best practices to protect children. Several participants from that conference are now founding members of Francis' commission, including Baroness Sheila Hollins, a British psychiatrist. 
 
 During that 2012 conference, Collins told the bishops of her own ordeal, of the hospitalizations, anxiety and depression she endured after Irish church authorities didn't believe her when she reported her attacker, and then blamed her for the assault. 
 
 "I was treated as someone with an agenda against the church, the police investigation was obstructed and the laity misled. I was distraught," Collins said at the time, calling for bishops to be held accountable when they don't report abusers to law enforcement. 
 
 The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the institution of the commission was evidence that Francis believed "the church must hold the protection of minors among her highest priorities." 
 
 But in a March 5 interview with Corriere della Sera, Francis appeared defensive about the issue, complaining that the church had been unfairly attacked. 
 
 He acknowledged the "profound" wounds abuse leaves and credited Pope Benedict XVI with turning the church around. Benedict in 2001 took over handling abuse cases because bishops were moving pedophiles around rather than punishing them. In his final two years as pope he defrocked nearly 400 abusive priests. 
 
 But Francis then added: "The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more. And yet the church is the only one that has been attacked." 
 
 Collins' appointment to the panel was hailed by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has clashed both with the Vatican and his fellow bishops in demanding greater accountability and honesty about abuse. SNAP, the main U.S. victim's group also praised her inclusion but said the pope doesn't need another study panel, he just needs to oust complicit bishops. 
 
 "He's had more than a year to defrock, demote, discipline or denounce even one of them," said SNAP's outreach director Barbara Dorris in a statement. "But, just like his predecessors, he refuses to take this simple but crucial step toward justice, healing and prevention." 
 
 The initial group named Saturday will define the scope, statutes and priorities of the commission and propose other members to better reflect the church's geographic diversity. 
 
 Other members include: 
 
 —Catherine Bonnet, a French consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry. 
 
 —Claudio Papale, an Italian canon lawyer and official of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases. 
 
 —Poland's recently departed longtime ambassador to the Vatican, Hanna Suchocka, a constitutional lawyer. 
 
 —The Rev. Humberto Miguel Yanez, an Argentine Jesuit who studied with Francis as a seminarian and currently is head of moral theology at the Gregorian. 
 
 —The Rev. Hans Zollner, the vice-rector of the Gregorian, a Jesuit psychologist and psychotherapist who organized the Gregorian seminar and also serves on the German government's roundtable on child abuse. 
 
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 Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
– Pope Francis has created a commission to advise him on priest sex abuse, but it's unclear whether the group will wield any power against abusers and bishops who cover up for them, report the Daily Beast and the AP. The commission consists of four men, three of whom are priests, and four women, all laity, one of whom was sexually abused by a priest and advocates for child safety in the Catholic Church. Another woman, French psychologist Catherine Bonnet, has written at length about child sex abuse. But it's not clear exactly what the commission will do—Pope Francis preferred to let its members work out the details, the Boston Globe reports. Broadly speaking, the commission will advise on policies that safeguard children, keep abusers from becoming priests, and train members of the church. Francis created the commission after remarks he made defending the church's record on abuse led to a political firestorm, with one group accusing him of stonewalling on five alleged abuse cases as archbishop in Buenos Aires. And critics are still skeptical: "They do not need yet another 'Study Commission,'" said a victim advocacy group. "The pope must take strong steps right now to protect kids, expose predators, discipline enablers, and uncover cover-ups." (For more, see why Francis called some priests "little monsters.")