Survivors of clerical sexual abuse from Britain and Ireland say they feel a sense of “calm” and “peace” after a series of landmark meetings in Rome with the leaders of the Comboni missionary order and Pope Francis.
The victims were abused as teenagers at St Peter Claver College in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, in the 1960s and 1970s, and for years struggled to have their suffering recognised by the Comboni Order who had run the college. The Combonis had continually refused to meet them or officially acknowledge the abuse. In 2014, the order settled a civil claim bought by eleven former students of the college, although did not admit any liability.
But things changed in June 2022 when Pope Francis met the group in the Vatican’s apostolic palace, asked for their forgiveness and pledged to contact the Comboni’s superior. Last September, Fr Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, the order’s leader, met the men in Archbishop’s House, Westminster, and apologised to them personally.
The group were back in Rome last week to meet the order’s General Council and members of the London Province. On Wednesday, 22 March, they met the Pope for a second time but this time it was with the leadership of the Comboni order.
“During our meetings in these past few days, which included a meeting with Pope Francis, we feel that we were not only heard, but believed by the Comboni leadership, something that has brought us a sense of calm,” the survivors said.
“This has been a transformative experience for us, vindicating our search for justice and dialogue as the only path of healing for those impacted by the wrong that was done to us.”
In a joint statement with the survivors, the Comboni order said: “we are truly sorry for the times we have not responded adequately, and we ask once again for forgiveness.”
They added: “we hope our time together can bring some peace and healing, and we commit to further concrete actions to ease what has been a difficult road for them.”
Bede Mullen, a spokesman for the survivors' group, said their experience has shown that “openness and dialogue does so much” and hoped it would encourage other victims.
“We all recognise we are healing and that in the remaining days of our life, we will be at peace,” Mr Mullen said.
He stressed that church leaders needed to respond to survivors as “representatives of Christ” rather than as the “representatives of commercial organisations.” In their statement, the survivors said they had been “met mostly with either silence or doubts about the veracity of our claims” and “the dreadful response we received from the London Province” had been devastating.
Following his June meeting with the survivors, Francis was keen to follow up with them and spent 45 minutes with the group on 22 March. Mr Mullen explained that Francis was "very, very direct" with the Comboni order saying they needed “to own the shame of the abuse” as this was the only way to bring healing. The Pope described the Combonis as a “great missionary order" but said that the abuse showed it had become infected by the Devil. He told them that hiding abuse or ignoring victims was no longer an option. Mr Mullen said that Francis told the survivors that he said their pain and encouraged them and the Combonis to “walk together on the journey to healing and listen to the abused as witnesses to truth”.
Mr Mullen said that following the meetings in Rome, he now sees the Comboni order as “my brothers” and perceived that the Church was changing regarding handling abuse. Mr Mullen said the survivors' group had received exemplary pastoral support from the Bishop of Leeds, Marcus Stock, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols. Bishop Stock is Vice Chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission and has taken the lead in accompanying the men as his former seminary is located in his diocese. He and Cardinal Nichols wrote to the Pope asking that the leadership of the Combonis be “held accountable” and make an “appropriate response” to the survivors. The survivors were also supported by the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, an experienced prosecutor of abuse cases and a senior Vatican official, who helped broker the first meeting with Francis.
Cardinal Nichols and Bishop Stock were present at the latest meeting with the Pope, as was Fr Andrew Small, the secretary (pro tempore) of the Holy See’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Fr Small has also assisted the survivors and worked closely on their case. The group are due to have another meeting with Comboni leaders in June in the UK to discuss ways to offer ongoing pastoral support for the survivors.
St Peter’s College was a junior seminary, a secondary-level boarding school for boys who had expressed an interest in the priesthood. The Comboni Missionaries, headquartered in Rome, is a global religious order founded in 1867 by St Daniel Comboni. It first gained a presence in the UK in 1903, and the order ran a junior seminary in Yorkshire across various locations from 1945 to 1984. The college was located in Mirfield from 1960 to 1984.
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