Vatican to tackle rights of priests’ children
Coping International, founded by Irishman Vincent Doyle and representing the children of priests in various countries around the world, made the comments after it emerged the Pontiff’s committee of advisers on protecting children from sexually abusive priests was expanding its workload to cover the area.
Irish bishops led the way by developing and publishing a set of guidelines earlier this year which focused on the wellbeing of the children of priests and also the mother, including addressing any psychological issues arising from stigma or lack of recognition up to now for their situation.
The Washington Post newspaper carried a report by the Associated Press in which a member of the Pope’s committee said a working group was looking at developing guidelines that can be used by dioceses around the world to ensure children born to priests are cared for adequately.
Commission member Dr Krysten Winter-Green said: “It’s a horrendous problem in many cultures, and it’s not something that is readily talked about.”
Another Commission member, Bill Kilgallon, said the issue came under the remit of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. “If someone fathers a child, they have a responsibility to that child, end of story,” he said.
Mr Doyle, a psychotherapist and founder of Coping International, went public with his own story last month revealing in the Boston Globe that he discovered later in life his father, who had since died, was a priest.
In a post on the Coping International website, Mr Doyle said: “Ultimately a statement must be issued by the Holy See. It must be made known that ‘the Church recognises children of priests, as a situation where the welfare of the child may be compromised’, that there is a crossover between sexual abuse of minors and children of clergy. It is only by publically stating this, acknowledging this, that the expected silence that accompanies children of clergy and Ephebophilia, is diminished, and recognition of one’s own victimhood and consequentially as a survivor of abuse, may begin to emerge. It is not an issue if it remains unsaid, if it remains unsaid, victims remain silent.
“Ecclesial silence on such matters merely buttresses the social dynamic of silence that surrounds this issue.”
