ROME
Times LIVE (South Africa)
Irish anti-abuse campaigner Marie Collins told Catholic leaders at a Vatican summit that the Church has to be held accountable for destroying the lives of victims of paedophile priests.
“Apologising for the actions of the abusive priests is not enough,” Collins told bishops and cardinals from around the world gathered at the Vatican’s Gregorian University for an unprecedented conference on child abuse.
“There must be acknowledgement and accountability for the harm and destruction that has been done to the life of victims and their families by the often deliberate cover up and mishandling of cases by their superiors.”
Collins recounted in horrifying detail her abuse by a Dublin priest when she was 13. “Those fingers that would abuse my body the night before were the next morning holding and offering me the sacred host,” said the 64-year-old.
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