THE VATICAN’S senior sex crimes prosecutor, Maltese Msgr Charles
Scicluna, said on Saturday that he respected the right of the Archbishop
of Dublin to speak out and “say whatever he thinks needs to be said”.
Msgr
Scicluna, the chief promoter of justice at the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, struck a diplomatic tone when asked about
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s recent public criticism of the slowness of
the Holy See’s apostolic visitation process in Ireland, saying: “I
respect his freedom to say whatever he thinks needs to be said . . .”
Msgr Scicluna was speaking on the margins of a press conference at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, held to promote
Towards Healing And Renewal , a symposium for Catholic bishops and religious superiors to be held next February.
Also
among the speakers was Baroness Sheila Hollins, professor of psychiatry
at St George’s University in London and one of the visitors led by
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor to the Armagh archdiocese.
Reflecting
on the visitation process, Baroness Hollins expressed hope that the
Vatican’s report, due to be released early next year, “won’t be too long
in coming”.
She did, however, point out that given that all five
visitation teams worked “in different ways, independently”, it would
take some time to assess their separate reports.
Baroness Hollins
said Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s team had spent 2½ weeks in Armagh,
meeting approximately 350 people, including many victims of clerical sex
abuse.
Meetings with victims were both public and private since it was
felt that people who might not want to meet the visitors on an
individual basis, might feel safer in a group context.
“There were
60-70 people present at these meetings . . . our endeavour was to
listen to people, to summarise what we heard, not in any way to try to
be defensive . . .,” Baroness Hollins said.
After a few
introductory words from the cardinal and herself, people were asked if
they wanted to speak. Usually 15 or 16 people raised their hands at that
point, meaning they were all restricted to just three or four minute.
“Some
people were very upset when they spoke, many were extremely angry.
Perhaps the most common thing that was said was that the church had been
arrogant and had failed to listen.
“Some people said it was the
first time they had spoken about the abuse; most had come with a friend
or family member, some were extremely distressed . . .,” said Baroness
Hollins.
“One of the things that is very hard is to really listen,
to really hear the anger and the shame and the loss in people’s lives
and to find a way to help people lift the veil of silence. Victims of
trauma know if you are not able to hear what they have to say and they
will stop talking if they think that you haven’t the capacity to hear
them . . .”
The 200 bishops and religious superiors who, along
with experts in psychiatry, canon law and child protection will attend
next February’s symposium, have been encouraged to hold similar meetings
with victims before the conference.
Although not a Holy See initiative,
but rather promoted by the Gregorian University, the symposium will
rely heavily on input from different Vatican dicasteries while senior
Holy See figures such as Msgr Scicluna and Cardinal William Levada,
prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, are scheduled
to speak.
Underlining the Vatican’s “imprimatur” was senior Holy
See spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, who said: “This is an element in a
profound and serious process of healing and renewal.”