The second day of the the Vatican abuse summit focused on the theme of "accountability," which included discussion of "zero tolerance."
Sex abuse victims on the sidelines of the Vatican summit have been calling for "zero tolerance" for sex abuse for both abuses and bishops who cover-up abuse. Some survivors' organizations, such as Ending Clergy Abuse, specified that for them "zero-tolerance" meant "laicization" for such bishops and abuser priests.
O'Malley explained that within current U.S. protocols, the specific promise of "zero tolerance" is that abuser priests will be removed from ministry in all cases.
"The conclusion wasn't automatically that they would be laicized...and that if they were elderly or sickly that they would have prayer or penance. And some religious communities thought it was better to maintain that person within the community to be able to monitor them for the safety of children," O'Malley said.
O'Malley also said that he has been told that the Holy See's investigation on the American church's handling of abuser Theodore McCarrick will be released "in the not too distant future."
Scicluna also expressed a desire to someday release statistics from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith on clerical abuse, and said that he had already spoken with Cardinal Luis Ladaria about the matter.
O'Malley clarified that the 21 reflection points given out to bishops on the first day of the summit were a compilation of points submitted by the bishops. "It wasn't coming from [Pope Francis] himself.
On day two of the submit, Pope Francis circulated the United Nations' document on the rights of a child among the presidents of bishops conferences gathered for the meeting.
Cardinal O'Malley said "there is a moral obligation to share this information with the civil authorities for the safety of children. I think that the terrible crisis that we have experienced in the USA is precisely because for so long these crimes were not being reported so reporting to me is a big part of the way forward and for the protection of children."
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.