Did Catholic priests father as many as 50,000 babies?

ROMAN Catholic priests may have fathered as many as 50,000 children worldwide – and the Vatican has drawn up secret rules to deal with the scandal, it has emerged.

The existence of guidelines to help ‘children of the ordained’ was discovered by Vincent Doyle, a psychotherapist who learned at the age of 28 that a priest was his father.

Until then Mr Doyle had been told by his mother that Father John J Doyle was his godfather.

He thought he was one of a very small number of children fathered by apprently- celibate priests. But after setting up a global support group to help others in the same boat he now has 50,000 ‘users’ in 175 countries, including the UK. Mr Doyle, now 35, told The New York Times: ‘It’s the next scandal. There are kids everywhere.’

Mr Doyle, from Ireland, found out about the guidelines as he sought answers about his father.

He was shown the guidelines by Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic – the Vatican’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva who told him: ‘You’re actually called “The Children of the Ordained”.’ Mr Doyle said: ‘I was shocked they had a term for it.’

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed that the guidelines exist, saying: ‘It is an internal document.’

He added that the 2017 guidelines worked towards the ‘protection of the child’.

Father Doyle had been born in the United States in 1939 but served in Ireland – in Ardagh, County Long- ford. He died of cancer in June 1995, when Vincent was 12.

Mr Doyle decided in 2012 to set up a website for people like himself after discussing his birth with a priest’s daughter.

Those affected like him are thought to date back decades.

The Vatican guidelines ‘ request’ that the father should leave the priesthood to ‘assume his responsibilities as a parent by devoting himself exclusively to the child.’ But that is not always followed.

Some of the children born are often the result of affairs involving priests and laywomen or nuns – others the result of abuse or rape.

Mr Doyle is in Rome in preparation for a four- day summit which begins tomorrow when senior bishops will discuss the issue of clerical sexual abuse.

The meeting – hosted by Pope Francis – is designed to impress on senior clergy that the problem is global and that there are consequences if they cover it up.

When the meeting opens it will discuss the responsibilities of bishops to their congregations – including their legal responsibility to investigate and prevent abuse.

It will look at ‘accountability’ and the protection of children, and discuss ‘transparency’.

Around 114 presidents of bishops’ conferences are expected to attend. However, Chilean Archbishop Santiago Silva and Costa Rican Archbishop Jose Rafael Quiros are sending deputies because they themselves are currently implicated in covering up abuse.

It is hoped the summit will result in the creation of task forces on each continent to help national bishops’ conferences develop guidelines to fight abuse and look after victims.

‘There are kids everywhere’