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Citing Vatican ‘Resistance,’ Abuse Victim Quits Pope’s Panel Citing ‘Resistance’ in the Vatican, Abuse Victim Quits Pope’s Panel
(about 2 hours later)
VATICAN CITY — Frustrated by what she described as Vatican stonewalling, an Irishwoman who was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic clergy member quit her post on Wednesday on a panel advising Pope Francis on how to protect minors from such abuse. ROME — A high-profile member of a commission advising Pope Francis on ways to protect minors from sexual abuse by the clergy resigned from the panel on Wednesday, citing what she called “cultural resistance” from the Vatican.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said the woman, Marie Collins, quit out of frustration over a lack of cooperation from the Curia, the Vatican’s administrative body. Her departure raised fresh questions about the Vatican’s insistence that it is working to ensure that no more children are abused by predator priests. Marie Collins, who was molested by a priest in Ireland when she was 13, expressed frustration over what she called reluctance among the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy to implement the commission’s recommendations — even those approved by the pope.
Ms. Collins, in a statement carried by the National Catholic Reporter, was damning in her criticism. She pointed to a “cultural resistance” that includes the refusal by some officials to follow the pope’s instructions to reply to all correspondence from abuse survivors. “I feel I have no choice but to resign if I am to retain my integrity,” Ms. Collins said in a statement to National Catholic Reporter. The lack of action, she wrote, “is a reflection of how this whole abuse crisis in the church has been handled: with fine words in public and contrary actions behind closed doors.”
“I find it impossible to listen to public statements about the deep concern in the church for the care of those whose lives have been blighted by abuse,” Ms. Collins said in her statement, yet watch privately as the Vatican panel “refuses to even acknowledge their letters.” Ms. Collins was one of two victims of clergy sexual abuse appointed by Francis to the commission when it was created in 2014. A year ago, the commission suspended the other victim, Peter Saunders, after he accused the panel of failing to deliver on its promises of reform and accountability, and he has been on a leave of absence since.
She called “the reluctance of some in the Vatican Curia to implement recommendations or cooperate” with the panel “unacceptable.” In outlining the initiatives proposed by the commission in the past three years, Ms. Collins spoke of “stumbling blocks” and the difficulties it had faced in getting cooperation from various Vatican departments.
Francis set up the commission three years ago, saying its job was to propose “the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults,” so the church can ensure that such crimes are no longer repeated. A tribunal to hold negligent bishops accountable recommended by the commission and approved by the pope in June 2015 “was never implemented,” she noted. Guidelines issued by the pope last June to discipline bishops who had covered up abuse were supposed to go into effect in September, “but it is impossible to know if it has actually begun,” she wrote.
A systematic cover-up by bishops and other high officials in many dioceses around the world over decades compounded the crimes of pedophile priests who raped children and committed other sexual abuses. She also said the commission did not have the proper resources to do its job: In its first year, it did not have an office or a staff.
Ms. Collins said she wondered if the continuing reluctance to address the problem was “driven by internal politics, fear of change,” clerics’ belief that they know best “or a closed mind-set which sees abuse as an inconvenience.” But the last straw, she said, was that a Vatican department was refusing to cooperate with a recommendation that all correspondence from victims of clerical abuse receive a response.
“It is devastating in 2017 to see that these men still can put other concerns before the safety of children and vulnerable adults,” she said. “I find it impossible to listen to public statements about the deep concern in the church for the care of those whose lives have been blighted by abuse, yet to watch privately as a congregation in the Vatican refuses to even acknowledge their letters!” Ms. Collins said.
The commission’s statement said Francis “accepted Mrs. Collins’s resignation with deep appreciation for her work on behalf of the victims/survivors of clergy abuse.” “The reluctance of some in the Vatican Curia to implement recommendations or cooperate with the work of a commission when the purpose is to improve the safety of children and vulnerable adults around the world is unacceptable,” she added, referring to the Vatican’s administrative arm.
The panel’s president, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, said in a statement issued by the Vatican, “We will greatly miss her important contributions.” Commenting on Ms. Collins’s departure on Wednesday, the commission’s president, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, thanked her for “extraordinary contributions.”
Boston is one of the more prominent dioceses where church leaders tried to hide clergy abuse by shuttling pedophile priests from parish to parish. The commission said in a statement that Francis had “accepted Ms. Collins’s resignation with deep appreciation for her work on behalf of the victims/survivors of clergy abuse.”
Ms. Collins did not immediately respond to a phone request for comment. In her statement, Ms. Collins noted her disappointment over the reduction of punishments against abusive priests that Francis had allowed in some cases.
She said the Vatican had failed to put in place a tribunal that could hold bishops accountable for negligence in handling sexual abuse within their dioceses, a commission recommendation that was approved by Francis in 2015. The Associated Press reported last week that Francis had lessened sanctions against a handful of pedophile priests in an effort to apply his vision of a merciful church. But one of those priests, Mauro Inzoli, was later convicted by an Italian criminal court for sex crimes against children as young as 12. He is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him, according to the report.
She also expressed disappointment that the pope had in some cases reduced sanctions for convicted abusers of children. Still, she said, “I believe the pope does at heart understand the horror of abuse and the need for those who hurt minors to be stopped.” In her three years with the commission, Ms. Collins said she never had the opportunity to meet with the pope.
The Irish Times quoted Ms. Collins on Wednesday as saying the attitudes she saw at the Vatican during her work on the panel are “the same attitudes I saw 20 years ago, when I was trying to bring my own case to justice here in Dublin. That’s what’s really the most shocking.” She said she would have asked him to give the commission the power to implement its recommendations, to provide it with more funds and to allow it to recruit outside professionals. Nonetheless, she expressed confidence in Francis’ comprehension of the seriousness of the issue.
Ms. Collins was sexually abused by a priest when she was an adolescent. “The pope does at heart understand the horror of abuse and the need for those who would hurt minors to be stopped,” she wrote.
The only other abuse victim who had served on the commission, Peter Saunders, a British advocate for victims, was sidelined last year by the panel after clashing with it over its mission. Mr. Saunders, who was given a leave of absence, has said he has lost faith in the pope’s ability to deal with the problem. Voice of the Faithful, a global movement of Roman Catholics who support victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, said it was “disheartened” at the resignation of the lone victim from the panel, and urged Francis to remove the Vatican officials who delayed or refused to implement plans to protect minors.
“The church cannot ignore modern-day prophets like Marie and still claim to care about removing clerical sex abusers,” Donna B. Doucette, the executive director of Voice of the Faithful, said in a statement.