Mrs Collins spoke of the abuse she suffered as a 13-year-old in a hospital at the hands of a paedophile priest, and the subsequent cover-up. EN DAT DEED ZE NIET OMDAT ZE VERDER NIKS TE DOEN HAD!

RTÉ
09 February 2012

Marie Collins

 Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins has addressed a symposium ( Crispina "Toward healing and renewal" organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University)

Speaking to over 100 bishops and 40 religious superiors, Mrs Collins spoke in graphic terms of the abuse she suffered as a 13-year-old in a hospital at the hands of a paedophile priest, and the subsequent cover-up.

She was the opening speaker at a four-day symposium on child sexual abuse in the church.

The meeting has been seen as the most robust response by the Vatican to date on getting to grips with the crisis that has swept the church.

Collins also talked about the reply she got when she went to tell her story to the Archbishop of Dublin many years later. Collins learnt that Cardinal Desmond Connell’s “priority was the protection of the 'good name' of my abuser... 

The objective of the symposium was not that of preparing new norms to suppress abuse. These already exist, and have been made even more stringent in recent years, thanks above all to the initiative of Joseph Ratzinger before and after his election as pope.

The objective was that of moving from juridical norms to widespread practice. This means bringing the Catholic Church all over the world to implement all of those concrete behaviors that are necessary to "heal" and "renew" it deeply and with foresight, even where the scandal has not yet exploded in all its virulence but is hiding under the ashes, as in Asia, Africa, Latin America.

to the victims of abuse