Sex abuse victim blames Vatican ‘resistance’ after quitting task force
THE Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins yesterday accused the Vatican of “shameful” resistance to combating the practice in the Catholic Church as she resigned from a key panel set up by Pope Francis to deal with the problem.
Ms Collins’s walk-out is a huge setback for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors opened by the Pope in 2013 to counter abuse in the Church.
“There are people in the Vatican who do not want to change or understand the need to change,” Ms Collins told
The Daily Telegraph in a telephone interview.
“I can’t stick with it any more. They are not co-operating with the commission.”
Ms Collins, who was raped at the age of 13 by a hospital chaplain in Ireland, was the only active abuse survivor on the commission after Briton Peter Saunders was stood down by the Vatican panel last year for his outspoken criticism, even though he has not resigned or been formally dismissed.
The Irish activist said it was “souldestroying” dealing with resistance in the Curia, the Vatican administration, and Church officials who did not want to co-operate.
“I find it shameful,” she said. “The work we want to do is to make children and young adults now and in future safer in the Church environment from the horror of abuse.”
Ms Collins’s resignation was announced by the Vatican as she released her own statement on her personal website.
She said her decision had nothing to do with an AP report stating that the Pope had softened his stance on de- frocking of priests and bishops found guilty of abuse in a sign of mercy, and stressed that she served notice three weeks ago before the reports were published.
She said she believed Pope Francis was “sincere” in his approach.
Despite his support, she said there had been “constant setbacks” inside the Vatican.
She described the blocking late last year of “a simple recommendation approved by Pope Francis” by Vatican officials as “the last straw” for her. In a statement, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, the head of the commission, thanked Ms Collins for her “extraordinary contributions” and said she would be missed.
The Pope has declared “zero tolerance” of clerical abuse, but many victims’ groups claim that he has not done enough to hold bishops and priests accountable for the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church throughout Ireland, Germany, the US, Australia and other countries in the past 15 years.