“Parts of church in denial over scale of abuse, says survivor”, The Times
Katie O’Neill, London, August 25, 2018
The church is afraid to tackle clerical abuse because it fears the true scale of the problem would be unearthed, Marie Collins has said.
The Irish abuse survivor, an outspoken critic of the church and its handling of clerical abuse, was the lead speaker at a discussion on safeguarding children at the World Meeting of Families’ (WMOF) pastoral congress in the RDS yesterday.
She said there is still denial in parts of the church about abuse. Some people prefer to believe abuse allegations are a media conspiracy and an attempt by victims to “destroy the church”.
Following the Pope’s apology to clerical abuse victims this week, Ms Collins said she hopes abuse deniers will channel their energies into reforming the church’s protocol on safeguarding children. “I hope that they will take their energies from defending the indefensible, accept the truth, and instead of denial, put their energy into bringing changes that are needed,” she said.
It was a “red herring” to suggest, as some did, that clerical abuse was caused by homosexuality. “I certainly don’t agree with it. I believe we have heterosexual predators and we may have homosexual predators,” she said. “But when it comes to child abuse I don’t think homosexuality can be put down as the cause. It may suit some people to think that but I don’t think any studies have shown that is the case”
The church is afraid of the “domino effect” and this is partly why its record on reprimanding abusers and investigating allegations is so poor, Ms Collins said. “Every report that we’ve seen, every investigation we have seen, has shown the church acted to protect itself, to protect the institution, to protect its reputation.”
She said there was “the fear of how deep this goes and how wide it goes and there is this mistaken idea that if we do not look at it, it will go away,” she said. “There is this fear of the domino effect, that if you start looking at bishops and they start being removed, how many more will it be down the line? It shouldn’t matter. Every rotten apple should be got rid of and it should happen now.”
Ms Collins is a former member of the pontifical commission for the protection of minors. She resigned last year in frustration at its lack of powers.
She told an audience of about 400 that anyone who impedes the protection of children in the church hierarchy should be dismissed. “Anyone in the Vatican who would stand in the way of proper protection of children should be accountable as well,” she said. “ This accountability should have strong sanctions for the guilty — dismissal from their post, removal of their titles and privileges and if necessary removal from the church and the clergy.”
Ms Collins said that Catholics should question why the church is opposed to removing the statute of limitations for victims to prosecute and sue abusers and yet claims to be on the side of victims. “The actions of the church do not match the words and they are, in fact, totally the opposite,” Ms Collins said.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who chairs the pontifical committee on the protection of minors, was due in Dublin but stayed in Boston after more reports of misconduct in his diocese.