“If this 2019 meeting ends with nothing more than enthusiastic words about the discussions which have taken place and promises for the future, it will be the end of the road for many who have waited years for the Church to take concrete action,” said Marie Collins in an interview with CRUX (Nov 23rd, 2019.
ROME – A clerical sexual abuse survivor calls a summit on child protection that will take place at the Vatican Feb. 21-24, involving presidents of all bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the pope’s own top aides, a “last chance” for the Vatican to be taken seriously.
Calling the upcoming summit a ‘last chance’ for the Vatican, Collins criticised the continuing lack of uniform standards for the definition and handling of clerical sex abuse throughout the global church. She is also seriously critical of the absence of both Archbishop Diarmuid Martin from the planning committee for the summit, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.
She also questioned a statement from Archbishop Charles Scicluna, prominent on the planning committee, that the summit will merely be ‘the beginning’ of a process, when so much time has already passed without decisive change on transparency and accountability.
To read a full account of this Marie Collins interview with CRUX, click here.
It really is amazing that this meeting is being held now 25 years after Brendan Smith was first charged with the sexual abuse of children.
The Church’s response to this has been glacial in two senses cold &uncaring and untimely.
Really I’ve no hope that the Heirarchy can deal with this effectively.
Anyway the Church will be bypassed by the civil and criminal laws in the various jurisdictions around the world and the senior officials of the Church on the sidelines wringing their hands and annunciating it’s “horror” at what happened.
For many it’s too little too late v