I'll fetch and write this article in your "Crusaders Call" style.Perfect! Now I have all the information. Here's the article in your "Crusaders Call" style:

Vatican Commission: Catholic Church Failing Abuse Victims With "Empty Settlements" and Cover-Ups

Vatican City - The Vatican's Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released a scathing 103-page report on Thursday accusing senior Catholic leaders of being too slow to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and failing to implement new safeguarding efforts.

The report, only the second by a commission founded over a decade ago, faulted Church leaders for not providing information to victims about how their reports of abuse were being handled, or whether negligent bishops had been sanctioned. It also said the commission's own requests for information about safeguarding protocols had not always been answered and the Italian Church had failed to provide full details.

"In many cases, victims/survivors report that the Church has responded with empty settlements, performative gestures, and a persistent refusal to engage with victims/survivors in good faith," the report stated.

The 200-page report called for tougher sanctions for abusers and their enablers; public acknowledgement of cover-up and mishandling of abuse cases; and reparations for victims going beyond financial compensation, to include invitations for them to help develop safeguarding procedures and professional psychological support for survivors.

The report points to the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church's "decades-long pattern of mishandling reports, including abandoning, ignoring, shaming, blaming, and stigmatizing victims/survivors" and, in turn, perpetuating the trauma they suffer.

"The lack of accountability for Church leaders was a frequent issue raised by victims/survivors," the report stated, criticizing the Vatican for not making clear when bishops are removed from office for issues related to abuse or cover-up. "The Commission emphasizes the importance of publicly communicating the reasons for resignation and/or removal, when the decision is related to cases of abuse or negligence."

The document was drawn up with contributions from 40 victims, who gave what the commission described as "disturbing accounts of retaliation" by Church leaders after they reported their abuse. "My brother was a seminarian. The bishop told my family that my complaint could affect his ordination," one victim recalled. Another described how a priest in the local church publicly declared their family excommunicated after they reported the abuse.

The department surveyed is the Dicastery for Evangelization, a sprawling operation responsible for overseeing the Church's operations in most developing nations. The report said the dicastery has only one official tasked with handling issues of safeguarding. It also said that a lack of clarity in distribution of work on abuse cases with other Vatican departments "can create confusion and delays in initiating investigations and handling complaints."

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the head writer of the report and a Dutch jurist and commission member, suggested the Vatican had not devoted enough resources to its safeguarding initiatives. "Resources is a major issue," she told a press conference. "It's a matter of availability of funding and the scarcity of funding is a reality everywhere."

Among the countries evaluated was Italy, long a Catholic bastion that has been slow to address abuse by clergy. The report criticizes the country's bishops for not working closely with the Vatican commission, saying that a questionnaire about safeguarding practices sent by the group to all of Italy's 226 Catholic dioceses was only answered by 81 of them. South Korea, another country evaluated, had 100% participation.

As a result of a "culture of silence," victims said they're often stigmatized for reporting abuse, and that priests and Church members violate their confidentiality. One victim said: "After I spoke out, my own parish turned against me. People said I was trying to destroy the priest's reputation." Other victims said they had been accused of tempting priests. One victim alleged that Church leaders leaked victims' complaints, exposing them to stigma and discrimination.

Pope Leo XIV, elected in May to replace the late Pope Francis, has met with commission members several times and appointed French Archbishop Thibault Verny as the new commission president in July. The Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the new report would alter Pope Leo's approach to the issue.

"This report should serve as a wake-up call to Pope Leo," said Anne Barrett Doyle of the group Bishop Accountability, which has tracked Catholic clergy abuse for decades.

The late Pope Francis set up the commission near the beginning of his pontificate in 2014, as the Catholic Church was roiled by sexual abuse scandals around the world. Francis took numerous measures to tackle abuse, from opening up internal documents to punishing high-ranking clergy, while making it compulsory to report suspicions of sexual assault to Church authorities. But clergy are still not required to report abuse to civil authorities, unless a country's laws require it, while any revelations made in confession remain private.

THE CRUSADERS OPINION

The Vatican's own commission confirms what we already knew, the Catholic Church remains an enterprise protecting child abusers.

"Empty settlements, performative gestures, and persistent refusal to engage victims in good faith."

That's the Vatican's own panel describing Catholic leadership's response to children being raped by priests.

Forty victims testified. They described retaliation, families excommunicated for reporting abuse, bishops threatening seminarian brothers, parishes turning against victims.

This is evil.

Italy's bishops ignored 145 of 226 survey requests from the Vatican's own protection commission.

They refuse accountability even to their own safeguarding panel.

Bishops removed for abuse cover-ups remain anonymous. The Vatican refuses to publicly name them. Predator priests get protection.

Victims get silence.

Priests still aren't required to report abuse to civil authorities unless local laws force them. Confessional secrecy protects rapists. Canon law supersedes children's safety.

Pope Leo must stop playing diplomat and start acting like Christ.

Every bishop who covered up abuse deserves excommunication and prison. Every diocese that stonewalled investigations deserves federal prosecution.

Every priest who raped children deserves maximum earthly punishment before facing God's eternal judgment.

The Catholic Church spent hundreds of millions in settlements while maintaining the system enabling abuse.

They bought silence instead of justice.

They protected institutions instead of innocents.

Every Catholic must demand radical reform.

Supporting this institution with tithes funds the legal defense of child rapists and the cover-up machinery protecting them.

Take Action: Demand Justice for Abuse Victims

Bishop Accountability: https://www.bishop-accountability.org Track clergy abuse cases and demand transparency

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP): Support survivors and advocate for reform

Demand:

• Zero-tolerance policy for abusive priests—immediate defrocking and prosecution
• Mandatory reporting of all abuse to civil authorities regardless of confession
• Public disclosure of all bishops removed for abuse cover-ups
• Full financial transparency on settlement payments
• Independent investigations of all dioceses, not internal Vatican reviews

Pray for abuse survivors and for Church leaders to value children's safety over institutional protection.