Kurt Martens , associate professor of canon law, was interviewed for a National Catholic Register story on a new Vatican panel to deal with clergy-abuse cases. See below.

Vatican Panel Will Address Backlog of Clergy-Abuse Cases

From: National Catholic Register Date: Nov. 21, 2014 Author: Joan Frawley Desmond

Experts welcomed the Pope's new effort to streamline the appeals process, while affirming the "competence" of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle such cases. But there were also expressions of concern that the goal of reducing the backlog of cases should not be achieved at the cost of justice.

"This is a good sign Pope Francis is giving: He is basically saying that the CDF remains competent and gives them an extra instrument to promptly deal with a specific type of appeal against decisions, namely recourses against administrative decrees," Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told the Register.

"That is very good, since the CDF has built up competence in these cases and is very much aware of the problem of sexual abuse and takes that very seriously."

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