PRIEST’S SON URGES VATICAN TO COME CLEAN ON HUSHED ISSUE OF CLERICAL OFFSPRING
VATICAN CITY— The Catholic Church’s sex crimes investigator has met with an Irish activist who is seeking to draw attention to another issue the Vatican has long sought to keep quiet: the plight of the children of priests.
The hidden children
Archbishop Charles Scicluna met on Tuesday with Vincent Doyle, the child of a priest, who sought to compel the Church to acknowledge the issue of priests’ children and the psychological, and emotional impact enforced secrecy has on them and their mothers.
In a statement, Scicluna said the issue needed to be addressed and the children of priests acknowledged.
“Each case should be tackled and handled on its own merits... The interest of the child should be paramount,” Scicluna said in a statement he gave to Doyle, who shared it on Wednesday with The Associated Press.
Scicluna is one of four key organizers of Pope Francis’ clergy sex abuse summit, which opens on Thursday but is not expected to address the issue of priests’ children.
Secret internal guidelines
This week, the Vatican acknowledged publicly to The New York Times that it has internal guidelines on how to handle such cases.
Vatican spokesperson Alessandro Gisotti confirmed that the guidelines’ fundamental principle is looking out for the best interests of the child.
As such, he said, the guidelines “ordinarily ask for the priest to present his request to be dispensed from the obligations of the clerical state, and as a lay person, assume his responsibilities as a father, dedicating himself exclusively to his child.”
Doyle pressed for that default position to change, arguing that it often is not in the best interests of the child for his father to be fired.
Doyle also noted that these children are born under a wide range of circumstances, with some the result of sexual abuse by priests against females.
Compassionate prelates
In an interview on Wednesday, Doyle said he met this week with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the US bishops’ conference, and also secured a meeting with Monsignor Andrea Ripa, undersecretary of the Congregation for Clergy.
Doyle said all agreed on the need for case-by-case approach to the issue of priest’s children.
The Irish Catholic Church hierarchy has taken the lead on addressing the issue with a child-focused set of guidelines published in 2017.
Change the default mode
“This is important, as it eliminates the default expectations that he (the priest) has to leave,” Doyle said, adding that he was heartened that Catholic officials were compassionate and understood the pain he conveyed to them.
There are no figures about the number of children fathered by priests. But there are about 450,000 Catholic priests in the world and the Church forbids artificial contraception and abortion.