Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivor Marie Collins Heads to Rome in Protest over Bishop's Appointment before Hartford Talk

By Anne-Gerard Flynn
The Republican
April 11, 2015

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/clergy_sexual_abuse_survivor_marie_collins_heads_to_rome_over_bishops_appointment_before_hartford_talk.html

In this May 3, 2014 file photo, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, right, and Marie Collins attend a press conference at the Vatican. (Associated Press file)

Clergy sexual abuse survivor Marie Collins, who will be the keynote speaker at the 2015 National Assembly of the Voice of the Faithful in Hartford on April 18, is among the members of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors who are headed to Rome this weekend over Pope Francis' appointment of a Chilean bishop who has been accused of covering up abuse.

The 17-member commission was formed to hold those in positions of power in the Church accountable for making it a "safe home" for children.

Bishop Juan Barros Madrid has has denied the charges but the Irish born Collins is among those asking that his appointment be reconsidered.

"As a survivor, I'm very surprised at the appointment in Chile because it seems to go against ... what the Holy Father has been saying about not wanting anyone in positions of trust in the church who don't have an absolutely 100 percent record of child protection," Collins is quoted as saying in the National Catholic Reporter.

The four enroute will meet with Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley who heads the Vatican commission and who is in Rome for a meeting of the Council of Cardinals that advises the pope on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.

Survivor and commission member Peter Saunders told the National Catholic Reporter that he hopes Francis will be present for the meeting. Saunders is the founder of the U.K.-based National Association for People Abused in Childhood.

Collins has said she does not expect to meet with Francis, but hopes that O'Malley will pass along their concerns.

In January, the pope appointed Barros as head of the Church in the diocese of Osorno, Chile. This brought immediate protests from laity, clergy, as well as national lawmakers, in Chile who asked the appointment be rescinded. The bishop, who was installed last month, is not accused of abuse, but of covering up for the actions of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a once prominent charismatic priest in Chile, who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors.

Barros and three other bishops, who were all mentored by Karadima, are accused of covering up Karadima's sexual abuse during the 1980s and 1990s.

On March 31, the Vatican signaled it would go ahead with its plans to install Barros Madrid as bishop. It issued a statement that said: "Prior to the recent appointment of His Excellency Msgr. Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno, Chile, the Congregation for Bishops carefully examined the prelate's candidature and did not find objective reasons to preclude the appointment."

According to the website Crux, the Karadima's victims are asking the Santiago diocese for financial compensation of $700,000. No criminal charges were filed against the priest because the statue of limitations had expired. According to the Washington Post, the 84-year-old Karadima is now living cloistered in "penitence and prayer."

Contact: aflynn@repub.com