Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (Italian: Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori) is an institution within the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church instituted by Pope Francis on 22 March 2014. The commission received its statutes on 8 May 2015 as part of the Catholic Church's efforts to deal with the scandal of sex abuse of minors. Its singular purpose is to propose initiatives that could protect children from pedophiles in the church. It is headed by Boston's Cardinal Archbishop, Sean P. O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., who was selected by Pope Francis for this task; earlier O'Malley had been sent to Boston to correct troubles relating to the issue under his predecessor, Bernard Cardinal Law. The creation of the commission was announced in 2013 after Francis was criticized by victims' groups who questioned his understanding of the full scope of the problem. Following a slow start, the commission has, as of 2015, begun meeting with bishops and sponsoring training for church staff worldwide. The most significant proposal of the commission, the creation an in-house Vatican tribunal to judge cases of bishops who are accused of failing to protect victims, was approved by Francis but has not been implemented.

The commission is composed of a maximum of eigthteen members including a president, and is assigned a full-time secretary at the Vatican, Father Robert W. Oliver, an American priest from New York and a member of the Brotherhood of Hope, who was appointed by Pope Francis on September 10, 2014. Oliver previously served as the Promoter of Justice (chief church prosecutor) at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which prosecutes sex crimes committed by priests and other church personnel. He also served as a priest consultant to the archdiocesan review board and an ecclesiastical judge of the Archdiocese of Boston, under Cardinal O'Malley. Oliver was ordained in 2000 for the Boston archdiocese.

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