Vatican ‘owes God an apology’

In letter to Pope, Gemma Hickey says Vatican must take full responsibility for sexual abuse

“Your Holiness, a priest sexually abused me when I was young,” began Gemma Hickey’s recent letter to Pope Francis.

Hickey wrote the letter in light of the recent investigations into sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

In the letter, Hickey wrote that the Vatican “owes God an apology,” but first it must take full responsibility for the abuse children suffered.

“I view this as the abject failure of the Vatican to acknowledge that actual people in actual communities with specific histories were shattered and brutally harmed at the hands of predacious priests and the bishops who protected them.”

“I realize you inherited this problem, but the way the Vatican mismanaged this crisis is disgraceful,” Hickey wrote, adding that in Pope Francis’s latest letter to Catholics there was no reference to new revelations of clerical abuse in Pennsylvania.

“I view this as the abject failure of the Vatican to acknowledge that actual people in actual communities with specific histories were shattered and brutally harmed at the hands of predacious priests and the bishops who protected them.”

Hickey ended the letter with an invitation to Pope Francis to speak on the phone or in person.

Hickey founded The Pathways Foundation in 2013 to help survivors harmed within religious institutions, and will track any response to the letter by the Vatican on Pathways’ social media channels.