Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest as a sick 13-year-old at Crumlin Hospital in Dublin in the 1960s, said many survivors will be watching the new Vatican commission “with interest, but many will have written it off as merely a PR exercise.”
“Survivors will not be satisfied with more words or promises, they need to see real change,” she said. She joins Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, three other women, two Jesuit priests and an Italian lawyer as the first eight members of the commission established in December by Pope Francis. These eight appointees will help define the tasks and competencies of the commission and help identify other potential members, the Vatican said.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the commission would take “a multi-pronged approach to promoting youth protection, including: education regarding the exploitation of children; discipline of offenders; civil and canonical duties and responsibilities; and the development of best practices as they have emerged in society at large.”
“In this way, and with the help of God, this commission will contribute to the Holy Father’s mission of upholding the sacred responsibility of ensuring the safety of young people,” Lombardi said.
Collins, who campaigns on behalf of abuse victims, said her priority is “a strong worldwide child protection policy which would include sanctions for any member of the Church in a position of authority who ignored these rules.”
She added that too many bishops who have protected abusive priests have been allowed to remain in place undisciplined.
“I would like to see the way survivors and their families have been treated change. The concentration on often-abusive legalistic responses instead of caring for those hurt needs to end,” she said.
The Dubliner is seeking greater transparency because “the secrecy of the past led to enormous failures.”
The initial eight members of the commission will be free to decide what issues they are going to deal with, how they are going to work and who else will join the commission, Collins said. She said her understanding is that the commission will make its recommendations directly to Pope Francis and will not communicate through any Vatican departments.
Collins said she was “disappointed” listening to Pope Francis’ recent comments when he said no one has done more on the issue of child sexual abuse than the Church, and yet the Church is the only one to be attacked.
“He seemed to miss the point that the huge anger directed at the Catholic Church has not been caused by the fact it had abusers in its ranks, but by the unique situation whereby those in authority were willing to protect these men,” she said.
Asked what it means to have a survivor on the commission, Collins said in the past there had been a fear of survivors and “an inability to handle their justified anger.” At other times, survivors were seen as people who could be placated by words of apology but this “underestimated the damage done to lives and the hurt and anger and thirst for justice that so many survivors feel.”
“In this context it is a big step for the Church to include a survivor on the commission, but a very necessary one,” she said.
The other women on the commission are: Hanna Suchocka, a former prime minister of Poland; Catherine Bonnet, a French child psychiatrist; and Baroness Sheila Hollins, a mental health specialist. Jesuit Fathers Hans Zollner and Humberto Yanez were also appointed, as well as Claudio Papale, an Italian who works at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.