Zollner, 56, has been one of the best-known faces of Vatican-led reform efforts on child protection for years – he is widely regarded among Church leaders as an honest broker, a candid voice with a singular commitment to initiating and implementing reform efforts. The priest’s resignation from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) points to the problems plaguing the Vatican’s efforts to respond decisively to the clerical sexual abuse problems, which came to the fore after the scandals of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2018. It also indicates the crumbling credibility of Pope Francis’s reform efforts.

From a Railway Platform to the Altar: Abandoned Child Becomes a Priest
Twenty-eight years ago, a frightened five-year-old boy was found alone at Shoranur railway station. He had no memory of his parents or a family to


