German Jesuit priest Hans Zollner talks to journalists following a press conference held by an independent commission for the study of sexual abuse of children in the Portuguese Catholic Church last month. (PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)
The public face of Pope Francis' efforts to root out child sex abuse in the Catholic Church has quit his position after growing "increasingly concerned" over how the papal advisory body works, Agence France Presse reported.
Hans Zollner's resignation from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors comes as the agency continued to be dogged by controversy.
“The protection of children and vulnerable persons must be at the heart of the Catholic Church’s mission,” he wrote in a statement. “Over the last few years, I have grown increasingly concerned with how the commission, in my perception, has gone about achieving that goal, particularly in the areas of responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency.”
Contradicting Zollner's statement, Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors head Cardinal Sean O’Malley claimed that Zollner resigned because of his busy workload.
"Zollner was the last remaining founding member of the group, which was set up by Pope Francis in 2014 as he strove to rid the Catholic Church of the scourge of sex abuse by clerics," AFP's report states. "Problems emerged as early as 2017, when abuse survivor Marie Collins resigned as a member of the commission, saying the body was under-resourced and faced fierce resistance within high echelons of the church. Fellow commission member and survivor Peter Saunders also quit later that year."