Greg DalyThe sole Irish member of the Vatican commission responsible for child protection has said the commission’s involvement in the training of new bishops is “a big step forward”, and praised increased child protection awareness in the developing world.
Marie Collins, an abuse survivor who was first named to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in March 2014, told The Irish Catholic how the commission was invited to speak to the Congregation for Clergy and to new bishops during the ‘baby bishops’ training course last week. Mrs Collins spoke alongside fellow commission member Fr Hans Zollner SJ and the commission’s president, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
“I really approached it from the point of view first of all of what it is to be abused as a child, how it effects your life, and what it does, and then of course because I was speaking to the bishops and the congregation, I spoke about the institutional damage if it’s a priest that’s an abuser,” she said.
In speaking to the approximately 150 new bishops, she emphasised how attempts to protect the reputation of the Church had led to the mishandling of abuse allegations, compounding the suffering of abuse survivors and ultimately damaging the Church’s reputation further.
Discussion
She said the bishops were “very attentive” to the presentation and in the subsequent discussion, praising how “they really engaged with the whole issue”. The involvement of the commission in the training of new bishops is “a big step forward”, she said, “because if you can get the correct training in at that level then it’s going to work its way down”.
Mrs Collins also noted how bishops’ conferences from around the world have been asking the commission members to speak to them. “We’ve had some good interactions in Africa and the Philippines – in countries where they really are looking to learn,” she said, adding that abuse is often more widespread than is realised.
Calling the fact that the commission was asked to speak “really very positive”, Mrs Collins said, “I would obviously have preferred if things had moved a lot quicker, but at least things are going in the right direction and that’s all we could hope for.”