Marie Collins, the clerical abuse survivor, has hit out at the lack of a specific process by which to hold Church leaders accountable for their actions or inaction on child abuse, warning that it will result in the continued abuse of power and failure to protect minors from harm, writes Sarah Mac Donald.
Writing on her blog about the the Chilean bishops’ collective offer to resign, Ms Collins, who resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2017, said allowing the Latin American prelates to resign and walk away from their “disgraceful and harmful actions is not enough if we want to prevent their behaviour being repeated in other locations”.
The bishops of Chile offered to resign after three days of talks at the Vatican during which the Pope, in a document, accused the hierarchy in Chile of negligence in their handling of clerical sexual abuse cases (see page 24).
Ms Collins noted that while calls for accountability have been constant over the years from survivors of abuse, the calls had been ignored. “Only strong, transparent implementation of proper accountability processes will indicate real change,” she said.
A former president of Ireland, Dr Mary McAleese, backed Ms Collins’ view. “Resignation en masse is not an alternative to due process [and] accountability but in addition to it,” the canon lawyer told The Tablet.
Ms Collins also questioned what punishment bishops and cardinals who “facilitated abusers and tried to destroy victims” faced.
Meanwhile, Dr McAleese has revealed that, following the publication of the 2009 Ryan Report into institutional abuse in Church-run homes in Ireland, and the Murphy Report into the handling of clerical child abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin, a senior cleric had suggested to the Irish bishops that they should resign en masse.
Dr McAleese told The Tablet that she did not know whether the priest’s suggestion was ever discussed among the bishops.
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