UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Tom Roberts | Jul. 23, 2015
One of the most severe critics of the church’s handling of the sex abuse scandal spent several days last month briefing members of the Vatican commission appointed to advise Pope Francis on the issue.
In a phone interview Monday, Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle confirmed that he met with four members of the commission in London after he was approached to consult with the group by commission member Marie Collins of Ireland, who was raped by a priest as a youngster.
Doyle said he personally knew Collins and has “the highest regard and respect for her. I was really encouraged when she was appointed a member of the commission.” He said they met following a conference in the United States in April and Collins asked him then if he would be interested in serving as a consultant to the commission.
“Of course I said yes,” said Doyle, who said was skeptical at the time because of his past activity advocating for victims and serving as expert consultant or testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in thousands of cases in which church authorities were defendants. He said he told Collins, “I doubt very much that anyone in the Vatican is going to want to have anything to do with me or listen to anything I have to say.” Attempts to reach Collins were unsuccessful.
Doyle said he spent eight to 10 hours over three days at the beginning of June explaining the situation in the United States from the perspective of his 30 years of advocacy for victims. His involvement in the crisis began in 1984 while he was working in the offices of the Vatican embassy (now a nunciature) in Washington, D.C., and received notice that a family in Lafayette, La., planned to sue the diocese over a case of abuse.
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