UNITED STATES
OPB
[with audio]
Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.
For decades Marie Collins has advocated on behalf of sex abuse victims and spoken out against the way the Catholic Church has handled the crisis.
Collins was selected by Pope Francis to sit on the new commission he set up to try to right past wrongs and to make recommendations for dealing with pedophile priests in the future.
Collins is one of four women on the new commission and the only member who is also herself a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. She told NPR’s Rachel Martin about the abuse, how she overcame it and went on to help other victims.
When Collins was 13 years old she had an operation at a children’s hospital. It was her first time from home and she was scared, she says. The chaplain of the hospital began coming by a lot, including in the evenings to read to her.
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