Meeting to feature sex-abuse prevention seminar

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY

The Vatican’s upcoming conference on families in Ireland will feature a seminar on child protection, after the church’s sex-abuse scandal devastated the credibility of the Catholic Church in the country.

Pope Francis’ top adviser on protecting children from pedophiles, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, will head the seminar and survivors are expected to participate, said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Vatican’s laity and family office.

He told a Vatican press conference that details would be announced later this month.

Francis is widely expected to travel to Dublin to attend the final days of the Aug. 21-26 World Meeting of Families, where the sex- abuse scandal is likely to play out given the scale of abuse and cover-up in the country.

Cardinal Farrell said the main theme of the conference seminars would be exploring different aspects of Francis’ 2016 document on families, “The Joy of Love.”