“Pope saying sorry is just not enough, says Marie Collins”, The Times
Katie O’Neill, London, August 21, 2018
Francis apologises but survivors want real action
The Pope released a letter of apology over clerical sex abuse yesterday as the issue continued to overshadow his visit to Ireland this weekend.
With only four days to go until the pontiff’s arrival, Marie Collins, a prominent survivor of clerical abuse, said that the pontiff’s lengthy apology failed to detail the action the Vatican would take. She called on the Pope to outline specific measures during his 36-hour visit. The same criticism was levelled by One in Four, the sexual abuse charity.
The three-page letter addressed to “the People of God” was released by the Vatican in seven languages. Last week a grand jury report was published in the US detailing sexual abuse by about 300 priests over 70 years.
“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realising the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” the Pope wrote. “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”
The Vatican had been criticised for being slow to respond to the Pennsylvania grand jury report, which detailed the abuse suffered by 1,000 children and the failure by the church hierarchy to respond to their complaints.
The Vatican first responded late on Thursday when Greg Burke, the spokesman for the Holy See, issued a brief statement: “Victims should know the Pope is on their side. Those who have suffered are his priority.”
Presenting yesterday’s letter, Mr Burke emphasised its universal scope. “This is about Ireland, it’s about the United States, and this is about Chile but not only,” he said. “Pope Francis has written to the People of God, and that means everyone.”
The Pope denounced sexual abuse as a crime and admitted it had been facilitated by an institutional cover-up. Observers noted, however, that the apology did not mention the word “bishop”, the church leaders who either responded inadequately or were complicit in the scandal, and was short on practical suggestions on how the church intended to react now.
“I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons,” the Pope wrote.
“Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient.”
Ms Collins, a former member of the pontifical commission for the protection of minors, said she welcomed aspects of the Pope’s letter, but that it was missing specific details of how the church would address the matter. “I think a lot of it is good in that he uses very strong language and very clear language about clericalism and about the pride and complacency in the church and referring to abuse as crimes, which the Vatican for a very long time has refused to do,” Ms Collins said.
“The main thing that I have a problem with is that it still doesn’t say what is going to be done. He says what needs to be done, he says that all of those who abuse and all of those who cover up those crimes must be held accountable, but he is the one that has to hold them accountable.”
Ms Collins was abused by a priest when she was 13. She resigned from the Vatican commission last year, accusing the church of being resistant to change.
In his remarks yesterday, the Pope said: “We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.”
Ms Collins said that was a “massive understatement” to say that reform had been marred by delays: “It’s decades now and to say that it’s just been delayed, it’s dreadful. It’s been wilfully delayed by those within the Vatican . . . It’s a question of these necessary procedures wilfully rejected by those who do not want to see them put in place.”
Ms Collins added: “Hopefully [the Pope] might, in follow up to this letter, when he comes to Ireland say, ‘This is now what I am going to do.’ That’s what I’m waiting for and I know I am certainly not alone in that . . . There has to now be a statement on what is going to be done with any church leader who covered up the abuse of children.”
One in Four said it was disappointed and frustrated with the Pope’s comments. It said his letter failed to identify a “single concrete step” the Vatican intended to take to hold clerical sex offenders and those who protected them accountable for their crimes.
“Survivors are tired of meaningless apologies and expressions of solidarity that do not involve a clear call to action,” Maeve Lewis, One in Four executive director, said. “The Pope’s visit is very distressing to many survivors, retriggering old emotions of shame, humiliation, despair and anger. The least they deserve during this papal visit is a clear commitment that the Catholic church finally intends to deal with clerical child sexual abuse.”
Mark Vincent Healy, the first male survivor of clerical abuse to meet Pope Francis, said the pontiff’s statement must be followed by a reconciliation forum for victims. “This is a situation where we are beyond sincere sorrow,” he said. “Thank you very much Francis, all the same, for your very kind and considered words but we’re looking for far more.”
Mr Healy warned of divisions between those who wanted the church and the Pope to be held accountable, and those who felt demeaned and disgraced “for the faith they hold dear”.
He said: “We’re in turmoil in this country. I think there’s a huge resentment to his coming at this point and I don’t know how it’s going to play out.”