Pope has admitted abusive priests were moved about, says Collins

The most striking thing about Pope Francis’ meeting with the Vatican’s child protection commission last week was that he admitted that priests accused of abuse were moved about by their bishops, child protection campaigner and former commission member Marie Collins has said.

At one point in his first ever meeting with the entire Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the Pope acknowledged how moving priests accused of abuse from parish to parish had contributed to the abuse crisis.

“Perhaps the old practice of moving people around, not confronting the problem, lulled consciences to sleep,” he said, adding, “when the consciousness arrives late, the means to solve the problem arrive late.” It was, he said, a reality that the Church had been late to face.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of a bishop – never mind a Pope – admitting that priests were moved around,” Mrs Collins told The Irish Catholic, adding that from his context she believed it was clear that the Pontiff meant that priests were moved about in response to allegations.

She also praised the candid nature of the Pope’s speech, noting especially how he had admitted that early in his pontificate he had opted to keep a priest out of ministry rather than laicise him, despite the recommendations of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The priest subsequently abused again, and the Pontiff told the commission that until then he had not fully understood the reality of what he was dealing with.

“I learned from this,” he said, adding, “I learned that [paedophilia] is an ugly sickness … we have to get it in our heads that this is a sickness.”

“He admitted he was wrong,” Mrs Collins said, before adding that his admission that priests were moved about was an even more important statement.

Commenting on the Pope’s commitment to tackling abuse in general, Mrs Collins said that accountability was still needed. There was no evidence that anything had been done, she said, to implement Pope Francis’ June 2016 declaration ‘Like a Loving Mother’, which set up guidelines for tackling bishops who are negligent in the handling of abuse allegations.