Catholic Church Abuse Survivors Publish Open Letter To Pope In Oceania

The letter was published on the SNAP Oceania website and it is reprinted below.

Dear Pope Francis,

 

Welcome to our region of Oceania.  

 

You will be aware that your church’s leaders in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, and the United States moved child sexual predators from within your church into poor and vulnerable countries in Oceania where they continued to abuse helpless and innocent children.

 

Such countries included Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Kiribati, and Samoa, to name a few.

 

This has now been substantiated by court documents, state inquiries, and the media.

 

Apart from apologies to the public from you and only some bishops worldwide, there has still not been redress for the victims, or even personal apologies to them.  They and their families continue to suffer.

 

While your church is decentralised in dioceses around the world, your global corporation, The Holy See, operates on the shores of all these countries in a matrix of mutual relationships with the countries’ leaders.

 

Why do you not tax your local dioceses and your Holy See to pay compensation to the victims and their families?

 

This would make your Church more just and your words more credible than simply offering apologies.

 

As you know, perhaps better than anyone else in the world, in order for anyone to take your apologies seriously, your words need to be backed up with actions.

 

Sincerely,

 

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Oceania

• Felix Fremlin for Fiji and the Pacific Islands

• Christopher Longhurst for Aotearoa New Zealand

• Donald McLeish for Australia

 

7 September 2024