Church-Abuse Survivors Accuse Vatican of Empty Promises — By Jennifer Swann

The Vatican on Monday announced a new series of policies and projects following a weeklong assembly of a commission aimed at preventing child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. But the ousting from the Pope Francis–appointed panel of one of its most outspoken members has cast doubt on its commitment to reform.

The Vatican’s press statement did not mention its decision on Saturday to suspend Peter Saunders, a survivor of clergy abuse who had been enlisted to join the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Critics say the controversy, which comes amid widespread scrutiny of the appointment of a Chilean bishop accused of concealing abuse, is only the latest example of the church’s continued need for increased accountability and external oversight.

“This notion that the church needs new policies and panels and procedures and protocols—it’s really just smart PR, but it’s also very, very, very disingenuous,” said David Clohessy, a survivor of clergy abuse and founder of the national support and advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. The commission’s efforts “on paper look great,” he said. “It’s just that they’re never enforced.”

The church’s initiatives include a proposal to “remind all authorities in the church of the importance of responding directly to victims and survivors who approach them” and the planning of a workshop later this year to establish more transparency around canonical trials. Pope Francis created the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in March 2014, a month after the United Nations accused the Catholic Church of failing to acknowledge the extent of its crimes. In a report issued by the U.N.’s Committee on the Rights of the Child, the international human rights organization urged the Vatican to report child abusers to law enforcement, expel them from their positions, and make its archives public to hold high-ranking abusers accountable for their crimes.

Saunders is known as a fierce critic of the church, and his appointment to the commission lent it a tremendous amount of credibility, said Anne Barrett Doyle, the codirector of the online archive BishopAccountability.org. “I was actually thinking, ‘They might be this independent watchdog group,’ ” said Barrett Doyle, whose organization conducts research and tracks news related to the church’s sex abuse scandal. “We never see members of the advisory commission of church panels speaking out against the church, so it was actually making them seem like the real deal.”

The Vatican’s decision to suspend Saunders may have shattered any illusion of progress in the eyes of its detractors. The Vatican announced Saturday that Saunders would “take a leave of absence from his membership to consider how he might best support the commission’s work.” The institution told reporters that the commission’s members should not comment directly on specific cases of abuse, deferring to investigators instead. Barrett Doyle sees that as an inherent contradiction.

“To have a mission that prohibits the group from speaking about individual cases is to really limit its effectiveness,” she said. “What is it supposed to do—create rules going forward in a vacuum without using real-life examples as the source for what must be avoided and what must be included in your rules?”

During a press conference Saunders organized on Saturday, he said he had no plans to leave his position on the commission. He suggested his ousting followed a dispute in which he advocated for the commission to become more transparent. “The response of the commission was that they want to remain in secret with discussions behind closed doors for reasons I am sure they are more than happy to share with you,” he said. “But as I said, the reason the vile crime of abuse and rape of children persists is because too many people and too many institutions, including our church, [are] willing to brush these matters under the carpet and to try and silence anybody who wishes to speak out of such matters.”

Saunders’ removal from the commission is not the only point of contention for survivors and advocates seeking changes in the Catholic Church. Just a day after the Vatican asked Saunders to take a leave of absence, he and fellow clergy-abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz delivered letters to Pope Francis urging him to remove Bishop Juan Barros, whom he appointed in Osorno, Chile, last year. Barros has been accused of covering up abuse by Father Fernando Karadima, whom the Vatican sentenced in 2011 to “a life of prayer and penitence” for his longtime abuse of children, including Cruz when he was a teenager.

For survivors like Clohessy, bringing criminal charges against officials found guilty of abuse is key to creating meaningful change within the Catholic Church. “It sounds cynical, but priests maneuver and scheme and work for decades in order to become a bishop,” he said, “and if they saw that position being yanked away from even a handful of their colleagues because they mishandled abuse, they would change their ways. But in fact, they see just the reverse”

Vatican panel kicks off meeting on sexual abuse by watching ‘Spotlight’ — By Tom Kington

Vatican commission on clerical sex abuse gathered Thursday for a private screening of “Spotlight,” the Oscar-nominated film about abuse by Boston priests, even as Pope Francis came under fire for failing to act on the crisis.

The extraordinary screening was held on the eve of a three-day meeting by the commission, and was shown in the same church residence in central Rome where Francis — then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio — stayed before his election as pope in 2013.

“The film is extremely worrying about the cover-up of abuse in the Catholic Church, and I think it would be a good moment for the pope to see it,” said Peter Saunders, a British anti-abuse campaigner who is a member of the commission. He was abused by a Catholic priest as a child growing up in London.

Francis set up the abuse commission in 2014, appointing clergy and abuse survivors as members, and handing leadership to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who took over the Boston archdiocese after the Boston Globe exposed rampant abuse by priests — events portrayed in “Spotlight.” The commission was charged with finding ways to better protect children from abuse by priests.

Pope Francis, shown at the Vatican on Wednesday, is under fire from those who say he has not done enough on the clerical sexual-abuse crisis. A commission he set up met Thursday to view the film “Spotlight,” about a Boston Globe investigation into the abuse scandal.

The pope was not reported to have been at the screening, which was closed to reporters. The Vatican has not officially commented on “Spotlight,” but Vatican Radio praised it last fall as “honest” and “compelling.”

Last year, Francis also set up a new Vatican tribunal to prosecute bishops accused of covering up for abusive priests.

Saunders, however, said he believes Francis’ good intentions were undone by his appointment last year of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros to the diocese of Osorno in Chile, despite “very credible” accusations that Barros covered up for a predator priest, Father Fernando Karadima, who was punished by the Vatican.

Last May, Francis told a group of Chileans to ignore Barros’ critics, who include survivors of abuse by Karadima.

“Think with your heads and do not be led by the noses by the lefties who orchestrated this whole thing,” Francis said.

“Francis has said phenomenally damaging and painful things about survivors,” said Saunders. “People in Chile now see the commission as a laughingstock, and I cannot pretend the commission means anything unless he sacks Barros.”

Marie Collins, a Irish abuse survivor and fellow panel member, has also criticized the Barros appointment. After Francis’ disparaging remarks about “lefties,” she tweeted that she was “discouraged and saddened” by what he said.

In an interview last month with the National Catholic Reporter, Collins said it was “wonderful” the church had become more humble under Pope Francis, but added there was “still resistance” in the Vatican to fighting abuse.

Saunders said he had met the pope in October and asked him to attend the commission meeting, which will be held Friday through Sundayin Rome.

“It will be outrageous if he doesn’t attend, and I will say so — it will be the end of the honeymoon for Pope Francis,” he said.

Looking ahead to the three-day commission meeting, which follows two held last year, Saunders said he was not optimistic the experts would be able to change the way the church handles abuse.

“The last meeting in October was a non-event. I was told that Rome was not built in a day, but the problem is that it takes seconds to rape a child,” he said.

As shown in the following article, the Comboni Missionaries response to the abuse at Mirfield was similar to the Irish Christian Brothers response to abuse in Sunderland — “it is purely a commercial transaction.”

The Catholic church continues to quietly pay out compensation to victims of alleged sex abuse at Catholic schools in Britain while refusing to accept liability.

Leslie Turner, a retired primary headteacher, was paid £17,000 in compensation by the Irish Christian Brothers in 2014, after claiming two members of the Catholic order sexually abused him at school in Sunderland in the 1960s.

Turner, now 66, has waived his anonymity in a film for the Guardian to allege he was molested from the age of 12 by two teachers at St Aidan’s Roman Catholic grammar school in Sunderland between 1961 and 1967. Both are long dead, but he sued after being diagnosed with delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder in 2012 as a result of what he says he suffered as a child.

“After the abuse stopped was actually worse than when the abuse was taking place,” Turner told the Guardian. “I tried to become invisible. It never occurred to me to tell anybody. When the headteacher has been abusing you, who do you tell? I put it into a cupboard in my head and I shut the cupboard door.”

Turner is speaking out as the film Spotlight, is released in UK cinemas, which tells the story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Boston in 2002. The Globe’s investigation helped unveil a pattern of abuse by Catholic priests on a global scale.

“The church in Boston tried to sweep it under the carpet,” Turner said. “You read about cases [of abuse] in this country and other parts of the world … I lost my faith.” Describing the alleged abuse of children at St Aidan’s, Turner says: “It was so frequent it was what we expected to happen. It was normal.” As a child, the abuse made him scared and upset, and that he was letting his mum down, Turner said.

In September 2014 the Congregation of Christian Brothers agreed to pay Turner £17,000 after he brought a compensation claim for psychiatric injury, cost of therapy and loss of earnings, arguing that the Irish Christian Brothers were vicariously liable for the alleged abuse, owing him as a child a direct duty of care.

Numbers of members of the Irish Christian Brothers dwindled after the order became embroiled in sex abuse scandals in the US, Canada, Australia and Ireland. Its assets are now administered by the trustees of the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

The Congregation settled just before the claim was due to be heard in the high court, when it would have been forced to disclose whether any other pupils at schools run by the Irish Christian Brothers, including St Aidan’s, had claimed to have been abused. It would also have had to publicly reveal whether the teachers Turner accuses of abuse had been the subject of any other complaints, and how such complaints were dealt with.

When settling the claim, the Congregation said it was unable to admit or deny the allegations and insisted the Christian Brothers could not admit liability for what Turner claims happened to him. It said it would be “quite impossible” to investigate the allegations more than 50 years on, with the two alleged perpetrators dead.

Turner claims that one, Brother Norman Williams, would habitually abuse him during English lessons when he was 12. He alleges that the teacher would call him to the front of the class to read aloud to other boys, standing behind a large wooden table. As he read, the brother would reach up through his shorts and touch his genitals, pinching between his legs when he made a mistake, Turner says.

He said that the school’s then headmaster, Brother Dennis O’Brien, abused him in his office when he was 13. He said the headmaster asked if he had impure thoughts or actions, and in order to “check”, then abused him. Turner claims the head teacher told him he should say Hail Marys, and felt “great shame and guilt” when he got an erection.

Turner says he is going public to encourage other victims to come forward. “It had a profound effect on me, subconsciously, because more than anything else I wanted to be a teacher. I find this hard to explain to anyone but … I wanted to be a teacher who treated their pupils with respect.”

One of Turner’s classmates had provided a witness statement corroborating his account of what happened at St Aidan’s. Ray Stewart, who also went on to become a headteacher, said Brother Williams sexually assaulted him behind his desk in 1961. He claims he saw the brother “feeling up other boys in my class in exactly the same way”. Stewart also alleges that O’Brien once called him into his office and asked inappropriate questions about his sexual habits.

Turner said he suppressed his experiences throughout his career as a primary school teacher, which culminated in him serving on the Lancashire Safeguarding Children’s Board. He said he only disclosed the alleged abuse in 2007, when watching The Magdalene Sisters, which told of abuse at Catholic schools in Ireland. He reported it to the police in 2010 and was eventually told that Williams had died in 1977 and O’Brien died in 1998. Turner claims a police officer told him they knew of one other sexual abuse complaint made against Williams and four against O’Brien.

In a statement, lawyers for the Congregation said: “It is the unequivocal position of the Congregation of Christian Brothers Trustees that no young person should ever suffer abuse.

“In 2012, when Mr Turner first notified the Congregation of his complaint of abuse from around 1961, we apologised. Mr Turner accepted that apology with good grace. We are pleased that we were subsequently able to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to his claim at the high court.”

The lawyers refused to answer a series of questions from the Guardian, including details of other complaints of sexual abuse made against Williams and O’Brien and other brothers at St Aidan’s.

A couple of days ago I spoke with an ex seminarian from Mirfield. He asked me to post a brief account of our talk on the Blog.
The emphasis during our conversation was on the difficult time he is having coming to terms with recently discovering the Verona Fathers Mirfield Blog and the effect that the many painful memories of his Mirfield abuse is having on him at present.
He does not feel ready to disclose his name. Like many abused, he feels guilt and shame, and in some way feels that he is also complicit in the abuse that happened to him
Apart from his wife – and now me – he has never spoken to another person about the sexual abuse that he had to endure at Mirfield.
One post of his was recently put on the Blog – “Sent home in DISGRACE” from the Comboni Missionaries Junior Seminary, Mirfield – by anonymous.

He went on to tell me that he went to Father Columbo to talk about the abuse that was happening to him. Soon after that meeting he was, “sent home in disgrace” – another three seminarians were also sent home at the same time.

He would like to thank us all for the work we are doing in bringing the truth about what happened at Mirfield into the public domain. He hopes soon that he will be able to disclose his name on the Blog.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Blog is still working.
Mark

More victims of sexual assault have found the courage to come forward after watching Oscar-nominated Spotlight, it has been claimed.

The film tells the true story how investigative reporters from the Boston Globe uncovered child molestation and its cover-up within their local Catholic church in 2001.

In an interview with the Independent, the Globe’s editor-at-large Walter Robinson said the film had made a huge impact on the public ‘in a way that the printed word never could have’.

‘More victims are coming forward because of this film,’ he claimed.

Father Pelucchi, a former Vicar General of the Order claimed a couple of years ago that there had never ever been a member of the Order who had committed an act of Child Abuse!

Surely, Father Pelucchi, as the Vicar General, you must have been aware of this.

The following article is by Dan Horn, The Cincinnati Enquirer

At least eight Catholic priests and brothers affiliated with religious orders have been accused of abusing children in Greater Cincinnati since 1950.

An Enquirer survey of the 11 religious orders with offices or missions in the area that encompasses the Archdiocese of Cincinnati found that five of the accused clerics are now dead. The remaining three have been removed from the ministry.

One of them, Franciscan Brother Michael Montgomery, worked for years as an athletic trainer at Roger Bacon High School despite two accusations of inappropriate contact with male students in the 1980s.

The survey – the first of its kind involving Cincinnati’s religious orders – shows that the total number of clerics accused in the archdiocese since 1950 is at least 57.

A national study released last month estimated that total at 49, but that study only included priests responsible to the archdiocese. The religious orders – which are independent of the archdiocese – include more than 240 priests and brothers from the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and other groups.

The survey’s findings have raised concern among victims’ advocates who say the religious orders have, for the most part, avoided the same kind of scrutiny that priests of the archdiocese have faced through two years of clergy abuse scandals.

They say the orders’ independence, as well as their tendency to frequently move their priests around the country, often makes it more difficult for law enforcement and lay Catholics to keep track of abusive clerics.

“Abuse by religious-order priests kind of goes undetected,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests. “It’s easier for abuse by religious-order priests to be covered up or to go unreported.”

The survey found that six of Cincinnati’s religious orders reported at least one accused priest, three said they had none, one did not respond and one – the Jesuits- refused to provide information. No order reported more than two cases.

Of the three accused clerics who are still alive, only Brother Montgomery has been identified. Hamilton County prosecutors confirmed the church recently provided them with complaints about Montgomery, but said the allegations are too old to pursue in court.

“Hurtful behavior”

The Franciscans, who have about 200 brothers nationwide, received at least two complaints of improper touching involving Montgomery in the 1980s. The first incident occurred on a camping trip; the second at a hotel during a ski trip.

Despite those allegations, authorities were not called, and he was allowed to continue working as an athletic trainer at Roger Bacon.

“(Montgomery) told me it was purely accidental,” said Father Jeremy Harrington, who was then the provincial minister of Cincinnati’s Franciscans. “In hindsight, looking back on what I know now about the whole sexual abuse situation, I probably would have acted differently.”

At the time, Harrington said, the boys’ parents did not want to contact police or have Montgomery removed from his job. Montgomery, who could not be reached for comment, took an athletic training position in 1997 at St. Bonaventure University in New York.

He remained there until 2002, when the Franciscans’ new provincial, Father Fred Link, removed him from ministry because of the previous allegations. The removal came as church leaders were under increasing pressure to crack down on accused clerics.

“The province is deeply committed to dealing with this heinous issue,” Link said.

Officials at St. Bonaventure said they didn’t know about Montgomery’s past but received no complaints about him while he was there.

A third former Roger Bacon student came forward to complain a few months ago, saying Montgomery provided him with alcohol and molested him at a hotel in 1980, when he was 15. He was upset when he learned there had been other accusations.

“Why the hell didn’t they remove him?” said the accuser, who is not being identified. “I don’t want this to ever happen to another person. Hopefully, this will help the church cleanse itself of these parasites.”

Link said he considers the allegation credible. When he recently told Montgomery there had been an allegation, Link said, his response “indicated he was responsible.”

“Brother Michael is deeply contrite for any inappropriate, hurtful behavior,” Link said.

He said Montgomery now is working with adults for a business in Indianapolis.

Tougher rules, new policies

Montgomery is one of 929 religious-order priests accused of abuse since 1950, according to the national study released last month.

That total represents 2.7 percent of all clerics affiliated with religious orders, which is about half the percentage for diocesan priests.

Clohessy said geography is the main reason the diocesan percentage is higher.

He said diocesan priests tend to spend entire careers in the same region, where it’s easier to keep an eye on them, while religious-order priests routinely move from state to state or country to country.

And when someone wants to complain about a religious-order priest, it’s sometimes difficult because the order’s leaders might be thousands of miles away.

“With diocesan priests, it’s harder to hide them and easier for victims to know who to contact if there’s a problem,” Clohessy said.

Leaders of the orders say their numbers are lower because they do a good job rooting out abusive clerics. They say they have adopted tougher rules to protect children and have agreed, like the dioceses, to immediately report abuse allegations to authorities.

“We’ve always been proactive with authorities,” said Howard Schwartz, spokesman for the Maryknoll Fathers, an order with offices in Cincinnati and more than 1,300 priests worldwide. “Maryknoll always has and always will treat any allegation, even one from overseas, according to American law.”

Maryknoll reported no abuse allegations in the Cincinnati area, as did the Dominicans and the Fathers of St. Charles.

The Franciscans, the Comboni Missionaries, the Glenmary Home Missioners and the Marianists each reported one accused cleric in Cincinnati. The Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis and the Society of the Precious Blood each reported two cases.

The leaders of the orders say they do their best to help victims who come forward. Most offer counseling and a few have agreed to out-of-court financial settlements.

But Konrad Kircher, a Mason lawyer who represents one of Montgomery’s alleged victims, said they aren’t doing enough. He said the orders and dioceses have followed a similar pattern of either concealing accusations or doing nothing about them.

Father Link said his order did not intentionally harm anyone, even though Montgomery was permitted to keep working after students complained about his conduct.

“The provincials before me never felt there ever was any danger to children,” Link said. “I can’t believe anyone would leave a person in ministry if they thought there was a danger.”

Religious-order accusations

Eleven Catholic religious orders have missions or offices in the area encompassing Archdiocese of Cincinnati, with a total of about 240 priests and brothers. The Enquirer asked the orders to provide the number clerics accused of abuse since 1950, regardless of whether they were able to substantiate the allegations:

Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis – Two accused (one is dead, the other has been removed from ministry)

Comboni Missionaries – One accused (now dead)

Congregation of the Holy Spirit – Did not respond

Dominicans – None accused

Franciscans – One accused (removed from ministry)

Glenmary Home Missioners – One accused (removed from ministry)

Jesuits – Refused to participate

Marianists – One accused (now dead)

Maryknoll Fathers – None accused

Society of the Precious Blood – Two accused (both dead)

Fathers of St. Charles – None accused
Comboni

GOD “WEEPS” AND DANIEL COMBONI “WILL BE HAPPY”

(By Brian Mark Hennessy)

On his visit to the United States recently Pope Francis gave a homily commencing with the words, “God Weeps”. Just a week later on Vatican Radio, Father Tesfaye Tadesse Gebrelselasie, the new Superior General of the Comboni Missionary Order – known widely as the Verona Fathers – gave a broadcast beginning with the words, “Daniel Comboni will be happy”! Clearly the subject matter was not the same, for had it been, Father Tesfaye would have had to admint that Daniel Comboni, looking down upon the Order he founded from on high, is certainly most profoundly unhappy.

Pope Francis was addressing the shameful subject of clerical child abuse that has driven a once blind and arrogant church into retreat over its failure to recognise, address and make amends for the sins of “grevous delicts” – as the Vatican refers to crimes of a sexual nature – committed by clerics of the world’s dioceses and religious orders. Father Tesfaye, on the other hand was celebrating the Comboni call to share the Gospel with the needy, the poor and the impoverished. That is not an unworthy cause, but it was somewhat out of tune with Pope Francis for Father Tesfaye neglected to endeavour to also share the joy of the Gospel with Victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of his own Order. It is not as if he was unaware of the abuses for he, the previous Curia of the Order and every bishop and priest of the Order had been constantly reminded of the abuse over a decade or so by the very Victims he was ignoring.

Prior to the recent election of Father Tesfaye to the post of Superior General, his electors had been canvassed by the Victims, sexually abused when they were children by members of his Order, to ensure that a worthy man was elected – one who would at last acknowledge the crimes of abuse and the condonement of that abuse by numerous members of the Comboni Missionary Order’s hierarchy since reports of the abuse were first notified to them in the 1960s. So, before the turn of 2015, the Victims had a glimmer of hope that the Old Guard of the Order – Fathers Glenday, Sanchez, Devinish and their entourage – who were each steeped in the very failures of denial, castigation and slander that Pope Francis was condemning – would be replaced with a more enlightened leadership. Perhaps it is too soon to judge Father Tesfaye, but so far, and I state this a matter of fact by this public record, he has been as silent as his grieviously unworthy predecesors.

Father Tesfaye made another worthy comment in his broadcast and that was that he announced to his brethren that the European nations – in which he included Great Britain by name – were also to be a “fundamental space for anouncing the Gospel”. That was not a surprise to me because I had already noted that the London Province’s Charity Account Mission statement is that the purpose of the Order in the United Kingdom was to spread the message of the Gospels both “at home” and “abroad”. All familiar stuff – but which Gospels are the Comboni Missionary Order referring to? I deduce that they are not the same set of Gospels to which Pope Francis is referring – for he talks of the cherishment of children and repentance of the Catholic Church for the grave sexual sins of clerics of Catholicism against children. He talks of dialogue, compassion, understanding and seeking forgiveness from the Victims of abuse. “There is no place in the Church for clerics who have abused children” he has stridently announced. The Vatican has even accepted that the sexual abuse of children is a form of torture due to its punitive, cruel and degrading nature – as declared by the United Nations Human Rights Commission Against Torture.

It was not a co-incidence either that hitherto, at the very same moment as the Pope was meeting the Victims of clerical sexual abuse in the Domus Sancte Marthae in 2014, that an Archbishop in Rome was addressing a gathering of English speaking Catholic prelates and child abuse specialists. He commenced, “Abuse will remain a wound in the side of the Church until the day in which every single survivor of abuse has achieved the personal healing he or she deserves. What happened should never have happened in the Church of Jesus Christ – because Jesus Himself tells us that children are a sign of the Kingdom of God. This means that our understanding of Faith and of the Kingdom is measured in the manner in which we protect and respect and cherish children, or in which we fail children. … The Church must lovingly embrace Victims, those wounded men and women whose wounds cannot be sanitised from a distance. The Good Samaritan is the one who carries the wounded man in his own arms. …Jesus also said that we must leave the ninety-nine and go out to seek the one who is lost. This refers also to the Church’s attitude towards victims of abuse. The Church must go out of its way to seek and find even more victims and survivors …as the healing of wounds inflicted by the Church will derive only from a new vision of a “healing” Church”.

This is all very much out of tune with the absolute refusal of the hierarchy of the Comboni Missionary Order to have any contact or dialogue whatsoever with the Victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of their Order – let alone apologise or make meaningful reparations or show compassion and understanding. Indeed, publicly, members of the Order have stated slanderously that the Victims are “money grabbers” and have maintained by suggestion that there is not a semblance of truth in their claims. Clearly, the hierarchy of the Order just wishes that the Victims will disappear in time and that they can then get back to their old regime of neglect and indifference – and, no doubt, the re-establishment of their self-assuring and self-assumed superiority and self esteem. In that warped version of reality, they must long for the “good old days”! The problem is that the Victims are not going away – and those “good old days” are never coming back. They may dream, but the only pedestal they can ever hope to grace in the future is one of lifeless, cold stone, upon which they can perch high, un-feeling, blind and out of sight in the facade of an ancient Cathedral. They appear unaware that there is a new reality amongst the legal and civil populations of the world who have championed the rights of children and demanded justice for victims – to the shame of the Bishops and Religious leaders of the Orders of the Catholic Church who have been dragged kicking and screaming in a reluctant game of “catch up”! But catch up they will – either in the spirit of Gospel enlightenment, or by the slow realisation that the alternative is increasingly a destiny as a curious anochronism and, ultimately, waning extinction.

So, Father Tesfaye is unequivacally wrong. Daniel Comboni is not happy. The Comboni Missionary Order is at odds not just with the civil populations of the world, but also with their Pope – and with the Gospels of the Evangelists. The Order cannot proclaim the Gospels “selectively”. They either embrace every tenant or they are just like an empty vessel making meaningless noise. Only charlatans preach, but do not practice. The choice of how history records Father Tesfaye’s personal contribution to his Order – either a revival in the enlightenment of the Evangelists or the Order’s further headlong dash to destruction – is in his hands. Father Tesfaye should make no mistake: he is being watched in what he decides and does – not just by Victims now, nor just by the media, nor ultimately also by the British Government in their forthcoming Public Inquiry. He is being watched also by the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the British Isles who have now, through their most senior Cardinal prelate at Westminster, assured Victims in writing of his practical support to the Victims of abuse perpetrated within Father Tesfaye’s Order. The result of this is that the Vatican too will be fully aware in the greatest detail of the allegations of abuse made against members of his Order, allegations of the historical condonement of that abuse by his hierarchy, allegations of attempts to conceal the truth by silence, denial and obfuscation, allegations of hierarchical re-victimisation of and discrimination against Victims – and also the grave allegation that his Order has sytematically protected the very clerics who are alleged to have committed those heinous, sexual abuses against children and minors.

CHILD ABUSE NEWS IN BRIEF FROM RECENT PRESS ARTICLES

Abridged By Brian Hennessy

An interview with Sarah MacDonald, a journalist based in Dublin

Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from

the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the

“frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it. Collins, a member of the

Pontifical Commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

She warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and

that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

“In some countries, there is still an attitude that clerical child sexual abuse “is not a

problem and never will be problem, or that it is a Western problem or a problem within

English-speaking countries, or it is being exaggerated, or that it would never happen in

our country because of our culture,” she said. “It is very difficult to convince people to

put safety measures in place if they think it is never going to happen. They can’t see the

point,” Collins commented. In countries where the church is tackling the issue, she

detects an attitude of “When will this be all over and we can stop having to put all of

these provisions and policies in place? When can we go back to being the way we were?’

You have to try to get through that and say you can never go back to where you were.”

Marie Collins believes that it will be survivors of abuse in Africa and Asia who will force

the church there to implement change. To date, in countries where abuse has been

uncovered and better safeguarding practices have been implemented, it has been a

survivor-led movement. “It is not that the church wanted to listen, it is they were made to

listen by survivors and I don’t think anything will change in that respect,” Collins said.

“You are still dealing with some people in the church – I am not saying everybody – who

have those defensive attitudes that survivors exaggerate, are looking for money, or they

are trying to destroy the church,” Collins said. “What is important is the work and trying

to make children safe in the future.” she said. But in Collins’ opinion, the bishops “have

to balance their duties towards their members against the duty towards children or minors

in their care.” Referring to the paramountcy principle, which would require people to put

the welfare of the child first, she told National Catholic Reporter, “If you always make

your decisions on that basis, then you are much clearer about what the priority is: The

priority is that children or young people must be kept safe. So it is not a question of

balancing equal rights, and I think that is a point that is missed a lot. If it comes to a

situation where you are thinking about their rights and the rights of children, you have to

put the safety of the child first.” Under Pope Francis, she believes, the Catholic church

has been a less judgmental church. “It is wonderful that we have a more humble church,

because my problem with the leadership has always been the arrogance and putting

themselves up on pedestals.”

Page 1 of 8

CHILD ABUSE NEWS IN BRIEF FROM RECENT PRESS ARTICLES

(Abridged by Brian Hennessy)

An interview with Marie Collins by Sarah Mac Donald,

a journalist based in Dublin.

Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins has said she hopes 2016 will see results from

the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, despite the

“frustratingly slow” pace of the reforms being developed by it. Collins, a member of the

Pontifical Commission, admitted that she has found Vatican bureaucracy “very difficult.”

She warned that “there is still resistance” within the church to safeguarding protocols and

that is why the commission’s work is “essential.”

“In some countries, there is still an attitude that clerical child sexual abuse “is not a

problem and never will be problem, or that it is a Western problem or a problem within

English-speaking countries, or it is being exaggerated, or that it would never happen in

our country because of our culture,” she said. “It is very difficult to convince people to

put safety measures in place if they think it is never going to happen. They can’t see the

point,” Collins commented. In countries where the church is tackling the issue, she

detects an attitude of “When will this be all over and we can stop having to put all of

these provisions and policies in place? When can we go back to being the way we were?’

You have to try to get through that and say you can never go back to where you were.”

Marie Collins believes that it will be survivors of abuse in Africa and Asia who will force

the church there to implement change. To date, in countries where abuse has been

uncovered and better safeguarding practices have been implemented, it has been a

survivor-led movement. “It is not that the church wanted to listen, it is they were made to

listen by survivors and I don’t think anything will change in that respect,” Collins said.

“You are still dealing with some people in the church – I am not saying everybody – who

have those defensive attitudes that survivors exaggerate, are looking for money, or they

are trying to destroy the church,” Collins said. “What is important is the work and trying

to make children safe in the future.” she said. But in Collins’ opinion, the bishops “have

to balance their duties towards their members against the duty towards children or minors

in their care.” Referring to the paramountcy principle, which would require people to put

the welfare of the child first, she told National Catholic Reporter, “If you always make

your decisions on that basis, then you are much clearer about what the priority is: The

priority is that children or young people must be kept safe. So it is not a question of

balancing equal rights, and I think that is a point that is missed a lot. If it comes to a

situation where you are thinking about their rights and the rights of children, you have to

put the safety of the child first.” Under Pope Francis, she believes, the Catholic church

has been a less judgmental church. “It is wonderful that we have a more humble church,

because my problem with the leadership has always been the arrogance and putting

themselves up on pedestals.”

Page 2 of 8

Catholic Whistleblowers’ Petition to the Vatican by Brian Roewe,

a National Catholic Reporter staff writer.

After years of raising concerns to U.S. bishops about potential holes in their clergy sexual

abuse policies to little avail, a group of Catholic advocates has requested Vatican

intervention.

Catholic Whistleblowers, in a formal request for investigation, alleges the U.S.

Conference of Catholic Bishops has not followed through fully on its policy of zero

tolerance toward abusive priests and deacons, in part because its guidelines lack a

mechanism to assure that bishops send the necessary cases to the Vatican’s Congregation

for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the organization argues that the conference uses

a higher bar than church law to determine which cases require review by Rome. “In a

deliberate and ongoing way, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops reneges on its

commitment to zero tolerance. The conference does not exercise the leadership necessary

to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the

community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and

deacons,” Fr. James Connell, a canon lawyer and a member of Catholic Whistleblowers,

said in the letter.

The 13-page letter, dated Jan. 4, is addressed to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the

Congregation for Bishops, and was mailed to more than 450 U.S. bishops. It requests a

formal investigation into the U.S. bishops’ practices, arguing that the U.S. bishops’

conference has caused harm and scandal through its policies and behavior to address

sexual abuse.

Since July, Catholic Whistleblowers, a network of priests, religious and laypersons, has

asked the Vatican to investigate Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., and Cardinals

Justin Rigali and Raymond Burke. In 2014, it asked for review of Bishop Robert Finn,

then head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese. Last fall, it joined other

organizations in appealing to President Barack Obama to convene a national commission

investigating all sexual abuse of children.

Their petitions follow Pope Francis’ approval in June of a five-point accountability

system for bishops handling abuse allegations. The first point states that “there is the duty

to report all complaints” to the appropriate Vatican congregation. The new system also is

to establish a tribunal housed in the doctrinal congregation that will rule on bishops’

abuse of office pertaining to child sex abuse. The petition regarding the U.S. bishops’

conference outlines three major concerns:

 Resistance to statute of limitations reform;

 A higher bar for bishops to report allegations to Rome, one that “dilutes the

Church’s process” in identifying such cases;

 A flawed audit process that prevents verification that all cases that should be sent

to the Vatican are sent.

Page 3 of 8

The second concern addresses the difference between “sufficient evidence” in U.S.

bishops’ policies and “semblance of truth” in universal church law. Point six of the Dallas

Charter’s “Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of

Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons” mandates that preliminary investigation

of an allegation should take place “When there is sufficient evidence that sexual abuse of

a minor has occurred, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith shall be notified,” it

says. In contrast, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela – the universal church law

promulgated in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and revised in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI –

states on moral crimes including sexual abuse: “Whenever the Ordinary or Hierarch

receives a report of a grave delict, which has at least the semblance of truth, once the

preliminary investigation has been completed, he is to communicate the matter to the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Connell, a Canon Lawyer, said, “Sufficient evidence that the abuse occurred, we are

saying, is a higher standard to be met, without there being a trial. Beyond setting a

potentially higher bar, Catholic Whistleblowers says the U.S. bishops’ Essential Norms

provide no way of assuring that bishops pass any cases to the doctrinal congregation

because of its placement outside the audited portion of the charter. “As a result, no one

checks to verify that all the allegations of clergy sexual abuse of a minor or of a

vulnerable adult that ought to be sent to the CDF actually are sent,” Catholic

Whistleblowers said in the petition.

At times, Connell said, he’s received the impression that some bishops believe that by

apologizing to abuse survivors they have fulfilled what is expected. That’s not the case,

Connell said, explaining if he gets into a car accident, he can say sorry and the other

driver can forgive him, but there’s still the matter of fixing the car. In the case of clergy

sexual abuse, the bishops must take steps to repair the harm done by clergy, religious

orders and the church, he said. “It takes seconds to apologize; it might take years to repair

the damage. And reparation is called for in justice,” he said.

Msgr Lynn of the Philadelphia Archdiocese by Ralph Cipriano, Author and former

reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times,

He may have won a new trial, but Msgr. William Lynn — the Philadelphia archdiocese’s

secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004 – isn’t any closer to getting out of jail.

Lynn, convicted in 2012 on a single count of endangering the welfare of a child, has been

serving a three- to six-year prison sentence. He was the first Catholic administrator in the

country to be sent to jail for failing to adequately supervise a sexually abusive priest.

Williams, a Philadelphia District Attorney, told reporters that he has filed an appeal

seeking to re-argue the case before all nine judges of the state Supreme Court. In 2013,

the same panel of Superior Court judges unanimously reversed Lynn’s conviction,

Page 4 of 8

prompting an appeal by the district attorney to the state Supreme Court. The state

Supreme Court subsequently reversed the reversal of Lynn’s conviction.

Lynn, who had been out of jail on house arrest, was ordered last April to return to prison

by the trial judge, M. Teresa Sarmina. “We will fight to keep Msgr. Lynn in state

custody, where he belongs,” Williams said. And if there’s a new trial, “we’re fully

committed to empaneling a jury and going to trial again.” Judge Sarmina sentenced Lynn

to three to six years in prison. She has denied bail – expressing fears that if released, Lynn

might flee to the Vatican.

Meanwhile, Lynn continues to work six days a week in the prison library, checking out

books for fellow inmates for a salary of 19 cents an hour. In jail, he will be waiting out

the appeal process until he knows for sure what’s going to happen next.

231 Choir Boys Abused in Germany by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, the Austrian

correspondent for the London-based weekly Catholic magazine The Tablet.]

Two hundred and thirty-one young members of the famous German “Regensburger

Domspatzen” boys choir were abused between 1953 and 1992, three times the official

number published in the diocesan report of February 2015, according to an independent

lawyer.

At a press conference in Regensburg on Jan. 8, Ulrich Weber, an independent lawyer

called in by the diocese in May 2015 to undertake further investigations of the abuse

scandal, said he feared that the estimated number of unrecorded cases was far higher. It is

highly probable that every third pupil at the preparatory school for the boys’ choir was

exposed to physical abuse consisting of violent beatings, withholding fluids for up to five

days, forced feeding and sexual abuse “from fondling to rape” during those years. Weber

spoke of a “system of fear” which prevailed for decades at the school. The perpetrators

were a small circle of priests, teachers and employees which included, Fr. Johann Meier,

headmaster of the preparatory school from 1953-1992, Weber said.

Weber’s figures are significantly higher than those officially published by the Regensburg

diocese in February 2015 which found that 72 former members of the choir had been

abused. Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer apologized for the abuse at the time and

offered each victim 2,500 euros (US$2,730) compensation.

Georg Ratzinger, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s older brother, was the musical director

and conductor of the “Domspatzen” from 1964-1994, for most of the period during which

the abuse occurred. The “Domspatzen” is Germany’s oldest and most famous boys choir.

It celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 1976. Ratzinger conducted the choir at his

brother’s consecration as Munich archbishop in 1977, and also when it sang in honor of

Queen Elizabeth II’s state visit in 1978 and Pope John Paul II’s visit to Munich in 1980.

Page 5 of 8

In 2010, when the first accusations of abuse were made, Ratzinger admitted in an

interview for the Passauer Neue Presse that he knew that boys were beaten when he was

chorus master but said that up to 1980, corporal punishment was allowed in Germany. He

himself had sometimes slapped boys but he had never “beaten them black and blue,” he

said. Ratzinger, who will be 92 on Jan. 15, told the Passauer Neue Presse on Jan. 10 that

he had no knowledge of any sexual abuse at the time. Beatings and slapping were usual

“in all educational fields and in families in those days,” he said. Ratzinger said he knew

that Meier’s slaps to the face and boxes on the ear were violent, but he had never seen any

traces of violence on any of the boys. He also said that on account of his “brutal

pedagogical methods,” Meier had been forced to retire in 1992.

Jesuit Fr. Klaus. Mertes was the pioneer whistleblower of the priestly sex abuse crisis

which swept across Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2010, which Austrian Cardinal

Christoph Schönborn of Vienna called a “tsunami. People’s first reaction was to adopt a

defensive stance against the victims. They did not want to hear what the victims had to

say. Five years after the priestly sex abuse “tsunami” of 2010, it is “outrageous” for those

responsible in the church “merely to go on and on apologizing” as that was not sufficient,

Mertes said. “Continually looking for scapegoats, traitors who were fouling their own

nests or blaming the press must stop and those responsible in the church must now really

accept their responsibility – including the responsibility for hushing things up,” he said.

“But now we not only have to clarify the sexual abuse but also why it was hushed up at

the time and then get down to finding out why the hushing up was hushed up,” Mertes

said.

Spotlight by Fr. Peter Daly is the pastor of St. John Vianney parish

in Prince Frederick, United States

“Spotlight” is a very good movie. “Spotlight” is a very sad story”. Spotlight” was a

tragedy brought on by sins of priests and bishops. The damage is not yet finished and the

perpetrators of these crimes have never been held fully accountable. The movie is the

story of The Boston Globe investigation of the priest pedophilia scandal in the

Archdiocese of Boston. The scandal exploded into public awareness in 2002. The

investigative team of the Globe, known as “Spotlight” had generally investigated

corruption in government or the police. But they turned their attention to the Archdiocese

of Boston with devastating effect. While the scandal broke in 2002, it had been

simmering below the surface for years.

As a parish priest I found it painful to watch. I was ashamed. I went to see the movie

alone. When the movie was over I sat in stunned silence in the theater and waited for

everyone else to leave. I did not want to have to talk. Above all I did not want to run into

any parishioners. Our church behaved horribly. Every seminarian should see this movie.

The US Catholic Conference of Bishops should spend an evening watching it together

and discussing it. The only disinfectant that will really lead to cleansing is the bright light

of truth. The Archdiocese of Boston would never have reformed without the Globe

stories.

Page 6 of 8

At one point in the movie the reporters interview Richard Sipe, the former priest and

psychologist, over the telephone. He has spent 40 years treating and studying the sexual

behavior of priests. Sipe’s character in the film points out what I have long felt to be true:

the root problem is celibacy. It creates a culture of secrecy and mendacity. People lie to

themselves and the church about their abstinence from sex. They become accustomed to

not telling the truth. Bishops are caught up in that clerical culture of mendacity. Sipe

points out that 6% of priests act out sexually with children, which was nearly 90 priests in

Boston.

The movie captures well the clannish and insular atmosphere of Catholic Boston – where

53% of the Globe readership was Catholic. The resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law was

one result of the stories. The movie hints at the arrogant clericalism in Boston, that led

priests and bishops to think they were above the law and accountable to no one. Just

before the final credits roll in the movie, a few words on screen mention that Cardinal

Law resigned but was never held accountable. He was reassigned to Rome at St. Mary

Major in a cushy sinecure. No American bishop has ever gone to jail for covering up

these felonies on their watch.

As good as the movie is – it tells only the first part of a continuing story. There is a need

for a follow-up movie to tell the story of the enormous payouts of cash and huge

settlements to victims, the stonewalling of many bishops, and the bankruptcy of eight

U.S. dioceses. That movie could also tell about the many people who have stopped going

to church and how parish after parish has closed. Maybe the next movie could be called

“Fallout.”

Thirteen years after the scandal broke many people have still not gotten the message.

There is a new clericalism and arrogance among many of the younger clergy today.

Several years ago, at a meeting of priests in our archdiocese, a bishop said to us,

“Gentlemen, after the scandals of 2002, priests no longer get the benefit of the doubt.”I

remember leaning over to the priest sitting next to me and saying, “The bishop only gets

half the message. After the scandals of 2002, bishops don’t get the benefit of the doubt

either.”

Two Bishop Resignations

by Brian Roewe, an National Catholic Reporter staff writer.

Two U.S. bishops who prematurely resigned their posts amid clergy sexual abuse

scandals each have found new landing spots outside their previous dioceses.

A southern Michigan parish announced over the weekend that Archbishop John

Nienstedt, formerly head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, will help out

temporarily in the coming months, while Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas

City-St. Joseph, Mo. diocese, began last month as chaplain for a Nebraska community of

women religious.

Page 7 of 8

Within the span of two months last spring, Finn, 62, and Nienstedt, 68, stepped down —

years before the traditional age of 75 when bishops must submit their resignations to

Rome – as shepherds of their respective dioceses, both of which teemed with anger and

anguish for their church’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations. In the case of Finn,

it was a 2012 misdemeanor conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse that

drew a probationary sentence in civil court but no recourse from the church. For

Nienstedt, his abdication, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, came just 10 days after

the Ramsey County prosecutor brought criminal charges against the archdiocese for its

handling of abuse allegations. Both Finn and Nienstedt now have new homes.

Nienstedt has agreed to assist in pastoral ministries at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church

in Battle Creek, Mich., in the Kalamazoo diocese. The Kalamazoo diocese in a statement

said Nienstedt is welcome in the diocese, while reiterating its commitment “to providing

safe environments for all people.” “As is the case for any priest or bishop ministering in

the Diocese, Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt begins his temporary ministry at St. Philip

Parish as a priest in good standing, having met the Church’s stringent standards required

to attain that status,” it said. It remains unclear, though, if the Kalamazoo diocese was

made aware of, or given access to, the investigation to alleged sexual improprieties by

Nienstedt with seminarians and other adults, which extended to his time in Michigan in

the early 1980s.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, objected

to Nienstedt’s move and urged people in Kalamazoo to educate themselves on the abuse

crisis in Minnesota. “This decision shows that Catholic officials still put the wishes and

needs of their brother bishops ahead of nearly every other consideration, including the

safety of the flock,” he said in a statement.

As for Finn, in December he began as chaplain of the School Sisters of Christ the King in

the Lincoln, Nebraska diocese, appointed to the position by Lincoln Bishop James

Conley. Both his former and current dioceses announced the new role in their diocesan

newspapers. Finn will reside at the School Sisters’ Villa Regina Motherhouse. In a story

published Friday morning, Conley told the Lincoln Journal Star that Finn has been well

received in the diocese, and that in the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis, Finn

deserves mercy, as well. According to JD Flynn, Lincoln diocesan spokesman, Finn had

to pass a background check and complete child protection training before beginning his

chaplaincy. In addition, Conley consulted with several ecclesiastical officials before

making the appointment.

“Of course, Bishop Finn has faced legal issues related to administrative decisions. He’s

addressed them appropriately, and they’ve been resolved. The faithful of our diocese can

be confident that his ministry as a chaplain to the School Sisters of Christ will be a grace

for all of us, and a witness to God’s enduring mercy,” Conley told the newspaper. Flynn

added that Finn made an administrative mistake – one he has since paid for – in not

immediately reporting former priest Shawn Ratigan to police for possession of child

pornography, and questioned those who continue to harp on the bishop’s past. “It doesn’t

Page 8 of 8

strike me as particularly Christian to search out a person who made a mistake and

continue to hound him about it,” Flynn told the Journal Star.

While rumors have floated in Kansas City that Finn might also teach at the St. Gregory

the Great Seminary, in Seward, Neb., attended by several Kansas City seminarians, its

rector, Fr. Jeffrey Eickhoff, told National Catholic Reporter that the bishop is currently

not teaching, and at this point nothing further has been determined.

ENDS

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NEWS IN BRIEF.docx

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Church child abuse scandals ‘tip of iceberg’ say real-life stars of Oscar-tipped film – By Fiachra Gibbons

Paris (AFP) – The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy’s biggest cover-ups said Wednesday.

Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 paedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone.

With the Hollywood film “Spotlight” about their painstaking probe of the scandal for the Boston Globe newspaper nominated for six Oscars and a slew of other prizes, they said research showed between six and 10 percent of priests have abused children.

Robinson, who led the newspaper’s Spotlight investigative team, said they found that around one in 10 priests in Boston were molesters after “the Church was forced to make its records public.

“In many other places the numbers reported by the Church are very small because they have not been forced to tell the truth,” Robinson said.

“That is true in France and many other countries, and parts of the US also.”

– ‘Six percent are child abusers’ –

Experts at the University of Toronto and Royal Ottawa Healthcare group believe between 0.5 and 1 percent of the general population are paedophiles, although studies carried out in Germany, Norway and Finland have estimated that as many as five percent of men have had sexual thoughts about children.

A leading authority on clerical abuse, Richard Sipe — a former Benedictine monk — found around six percent of priests were abusers after a 25-year study into celibacy.

His book “Sex, Priests and Power” is cited in the film, which was voted best film at the Los Angeles Critics’ Choice Awards earlier this week — a reliable pointer to Oscar success.

Pope Francis said the Church itself estimates two percent of priests are paedophiles, according a private conversation he had in 2014 with an Italian journalist, details of which the Vatican later contested.

“This figure should calm me, but I must tell you it does not calm me at all,” the pope was quoted as telling the veteran founder of La Repubblica daily, Eugenio Scalfari.

While the Church’s attitude to such cases has changed radically since the election of Francis, who has vowed to root out abuse, Robinson and Rezendes suspect the culture of secrecy still runs deep.

“There have been big changes in how the Church deals with this in Boston,” said Robinson. “There are even classes for children in how to recognise molesters. But not so much (has been done) in other dioceses and around the world.”

Rezendes said the real problem was Church’s attitude to sex and its insistence on a celibate clergy.

“Because priests are people, many — maybe most — are having sex with women and men, and some with children. Because all sex is illegal in the eyes of the Church it is kept secret.

“A priest who is having sex with a woman or a man is not going to tell on a priest who is having sex with a child. Because all of it is wrong in the eyes of the Church, they protect one another,” he said.

Robinson — who is played by Michael Keaton in the film — admitted that part of the blame lay with the press for not holding the Church to account earlier.

He himself failed to follow through on a story about clerical abuse in Boston years before his Spotlight team launched their major inquiry in 2002.

“Our generation of editors were too deferential to the power and supposed moral standing of the Church. Clearly we missed clues,” he said.

“It was unthinkable that such an moral authority would allow and then cover up the crimes of thousands of priests for so many decades, and never care about what happened to the children.”

All four of the journalists who carried out the months-long inquiry are lapsed Catholics, and Robinson said it had shaken their confidence in the institution, if not his own faith.

The story also took a toll on the reporters and their families.

“It was very emotionally draining for us to listen to the stories of so many people whose lives were ruined as children. It was horrible. We carried this burden.

“My wife, who is a nurse, believes we had a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder. We were brought to tears by what many of the victims had to say.”

The Catholic Church, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, has broadly praised the film, with Vatican Radio calling it “honest and compelling”.

A senior Victorian Catholic priest has loudly proclaimed his solidarity with clergy sex abuse survivors.

A senior Victorian Catholic priest has loudly proclaimed his solidarity with clergy sex abuse survivors.

Following a trend in church leaders joining Ballarat’s Loud Fence movement, acclaimed clergy child sex abuse advocate, Father Kevin Dillon, tied bright coloured ribbons to the gates of St Mary’s Basilica in Geelong on Monday in support of victims. It comes days after Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird tied ribbons at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will return to the city next month as it continues to investigate the Catholic Church’s failings in recognising and responding to child sexual abuse.

However, Father Dillon said crucial element missing the from evidence given by clergy so far: Repentance.

“What I would like to see at the next hearing is genuine repentance from clergy leaders for what has been done and the suffering it caused,” Father Dillon said. “Jesus himself said “the truth will set you free” and in this instance, it could not be truer.”

Father Dillon urged people to tie their own ribbons at parishes across Victoria in support of victims. He hoped the basilica’s 300 metre long fence would soon be filled.

“My experience is the vast mob of ordinary people and active Catholics are very much in solidarity with victims,” Father Dillon said. “As far as they are concerned this should have never happened anywhere.”

The Geelong priest was joined by sexual abuse survivor Chris Pianto. Ballarat is often seen as an epicentre of clergy child sexual abuse and Mr Pianto said Geelong shared many parallels with the city.

Mr Pianto asked Father Dillon to join the campaign in support of the many victims still reeling from the abuse they suffered at schools and Catholic institutions across Geelong.

“This movement is a way for them (clergy) to show they stand with victims and don’t condone they way the church handled the situation,” he said.

The campaign began in Ballarat last year and has since gone viral with Loud Fences created all over the world including at the gates of the Vatican.