Pope Francis should rid the Catholic Church of
“every rotten apple” and announce concrete
measures against sexual abuse by the clergy
during his visit to Ireland, a prominent Irish victim
told said.
Marie Collins, who resigned from a Vatican
commission on child protection last year over its
failure to take action, said in an interview that the
pontiff had to tackle the issue “head on”.
“Every rotten apple should be got rid of and it
should happen now,” Collins said on the
sidelines of the World Meeting of Families in
Dublin, ahead of the pope’s visit to Ireland which
starts Saturday.
Collins was assaulted by a priest as a 13-year-
old while she was in hospital — one of thousands
of victims in Ireland, where abuse scandals have
badly dented the Catholic Church’s standing.
“Coming to Ireland, where we have such a history
of abuse and so many have had their lives
destroyed, it is important that while he is here
this issue is addressed, and addressed face on,
and we get clear words as to what he’s going to
do,” said Collins, now 71.
Many ordinary Irish Catholics were “waiting to
see this whole issue dealt with properly” and if it
is not, “more people are just going to give up in
despair and walk away”, she said.
– ‘Fear of how deep it goes’ –
Collins welcomed a letter from Pope Francis this
week condemning the “atrocities” revealed by a
far-reaching US report into child sex abuse by
priests in the state of Pennsylvania.
But she said the words of the leader of the
world’s billion-plus Catholics did not go far
enough.
“It didn’t give any concrete statements about
what he was actually going to do,” she said,
calling for some “real sanctions” against those
who perpetrate and cover up abuse.
“The reluctance to look into things properly and
to behave properly is the fear of how deep it
goes, how far it goes and how wide it goes.
“There is this mistaken idea that if we don’t look
at it, it will go away,” she said.
– ‘He could do no wrong’ –
Collins had just celebrated her 13th birthday
when she was assaulted by a priest, according to
an account she gave at a Vatican symposium on
abuse in 2012.
The priest — “a skilled child molester” in her
words — began visiting her in the evenings while
she lay in a hospital bed in Dublin.
“When he began to sexually interfere with me,
pretending at first he was being playful, I was
shocked and resisted, telling him to stop. He did
not stop,” she said.
“While assaulting me, he would respond to my
resistance by telling me he was a priest, he
could do no wrong,” she recalled.
“He took photographs of the most private parts
of my body and told me I was stupid if I thought
it was wrong. He had power over me. I did not
know how to tell anyone. I just prayed he would
not do it again — but he did.
“Those fingers that would abuse my body the
night before were the next morning holding and
offering me the sacred host.
“The hands that held the camera to photograph
my exposed body, in the light of day were
holding a prayer book when he came to hear my
confession.
“When I left the hospital I was not the same
child who had entered,” she said.
– End Vatican ‘resistance’ –
After years of treatment for mental illness
brought on by feelings of guilt, Collins finally told
a doctor about the abuse when she was 47.
He persuaded her to tell the Church about it, but
when Collins met with her parish priest, she says
he refused to listen and blamed her.
“He said he saw no need to report the chaplain.
He told me what happened was probably my
fault. This response shattered me,” she said.
A decade later while reading news about a serial
paedophile priest Collins realised that other
children might have been damaged by the same
priest who hurt her and she again spoke up.
The priest was eventually prosecuted and jailed,
and Collins has since become a leading voice in
Ireland pushing for justice for victims.
Collins on Friday said only the pope could end
Vatican “resistance”, even if this meant removing
people in high office.
“Every day children are being abused. So every
day that goes by… more and more children are
being harmed when they don’t need to be
harmed.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/08/irish-sex-abuse-victim-urges-pope-to-remove-every-rotten-apple/

Popes and being gay