Precis

“As long as you have priests, you will have children of Catholic priests.”

It has been an open secret for centuries. Catholic priests fathering children in breach of their vows of celibacy. But like other scandals it has faced, the Church has swept this issue under the carpet.

The children of priests have long suffered in silence and shame, their mothers pressured to keep quiet and keep the secret.

We follow the story of one Australian woman who discovered in middle age who her father was, and who’s determined to find out more.

“I remember thinking I can’t tell anybody. I now have to carry a secret”, she says. “Over a period of time, I realised…I can’t keep the secret and I need to step forward.”

Reporter Lisa Millar heads to Ireland to speak to the man who’s bringing this issue out from the shadows into the light.

From a village west of Dublin, Vincent Doyle, whose father was a priest, is bringing these people together for the first time, helping them find a voice and a pathway to answers.

When Vincent Doyle launched a website for the children of priests, the response revealed the global nature of the problem. Within weeks, his website got hits from 175 countries and he estimates there are ‘ten thousand children of priests, that’s conservative’.

A woman who’s researching the experiences of children of priests found startling similarities between their problems and the problems suffered by victims of sexual abuse.

While the Irish clergy have responded to pressure and come up with guidelines to help it manage the issue, Rome has been slower to react.

Lisa Millar goes to the centre of Catholic power – the Vatican - to find answers. It now acknowledges the problem, but secrecy rules.

“I want the Pope to say the words ‘children of priests’. That’s what I want and that will just be the beginning”, says Vincent Doyle.

Episode tease:
Church shots

Music

00:00

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: For years it’s been an open secret.

00:03

Vincent

VINCENT DOYLE: As long as you have priests you will have children of Catholic priests.

00:07

Photo. Child and priest

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: Catholic priests who’ve broken their vow of celibacy to become fathers.

00:11

Michael in pub

MICHAEL:  I knew he was a priest when I was a child, but I couldn’t tell them that I knew because it was a big secret.

00:17

Group in pub

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: We talk to the children who’ve been pressured to stay quiet and suffered in silence.

00:23

Sarah

SARAH THOMAS:  This is just the tip of the iceberg, what we know at the moment. I think priests' children as a group want to be acknowledged. They want to be on the map. They exist. They're not collateral damage.

00:29

Millar walks with Linda

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: Some are speaking out for the very first time

00:38

Linda

LINDA LAWLESS:  And I can just remember rocking, going I can’t tell anyone, I can’t tell anyone. I have to keep the secret.

00:43

Title: Secrets and Lies

Music

00:50

Vatican shots.

Music

00:58

Millar walking Vatican. Super:
Reporter
Lisa Millar

01:05

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: When Catholics seek answers, they look to the Vatican – the seat of power and decision-making for the Church.

01:08

For generations, if questioned about children of priests, the Church said, “They don’t exist, and if they do, they’re an exception.”

01:15

Millar to camera

It’s hard to say how many children of priests there are around the world; there could be thousands. You mightn't have heard about it, but believe me they’re talking about it behind these walls. We’re on a journey to uncover the secrets of the children who have been silenced for years.

01:30

Music

01:48

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: We’re going to the very top to get some answers and to understand the depth of the hurt and the scale of the problem.

01:53

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: This has been a very big deal, hasn't it, for the Church?

02:00

Tornielli

ANDREA TORNIELLI: Yes, yes.

02:04

Flying to Mt Gambier

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: We’ll speak to children of priests in a number of countries.

02:80

The tourist guides boast that Mt Gambier in South Australia offers unforgettable experiences and unique memories.  But it’s where this story starts for a woman who is missing a lifetime of memories.

02:23

Linda greets Millar

02:38

Millar in home with Linda Lawless looking at papers

Linda Lawless has spent the last few years delving into her past, hoping for answers to the questions about who she is. Linda is searching for her biological father.

02:44

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  So you gathered all of this together and what does it tell you?

02:57

LINDA LAWLESS:  Nothing adding up. More questions, like I’m just not getting any answers and it’s just getting more and more confusing.

03:01

Home movie footage. Linda. First Holy Communion

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  When Linda was eight, she made her First Holy Communion and a family secret was revealed.

LINDA LAWLESS: That was the same year I found out that my dad wasn’t my real dad. So it was a big year.

03:09

Family photo on beach. Linda as toddler

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: The devastating discovery about her stepfather not being her dad hit harder when her mother admitted she’d almost had her adopted at birth.' LINDA LAWLESS:  It was such a scandal to be an unwed mother.

03:26

Linda 100%

She was very ashamed, so she went to Sydney to have me and I was to be adopted out from Sydney.

03:40

Linda and Millar look at photos

This is a photo of my mum that was taken on Manly beach after I was born. Always reminded me of what I didn’t know, and the unanswered questions, and what did she go through.

03:47

Photo. Linda as baby

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: But at very last minute Linda’s mum decided to keep her newborn and take her home to Melbourne, leaving unfinished paperwork. Linda always knew there was more to the story, but never felt she could ask her mother.

03:40

Linda 100%

LINDA LAWLESS:  She used to have a look of fear on her face and you just knew in the end not to go there. There was something about it that was just, don't go there.

04:16

Linda on laptop

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  It wasn’t until after both her parents died, that she felt she could start looking. She used the skills she developed as a part time genealogist to investigate her own family history.

04:26

Millar and Linda look at papers

"So all of this you were hoping was going to bring clues?"

04:41

LINDA LAWLESS: Yes, and it's only giving me more questions. A standard birth certificate has a family name, my certificate doesn’t have that. I don’t have a surname. I am still Linda Catherine nobody.

04:46

Photo. Three women

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  A DNA test came back giving her more information than she’d ever expected – a strong match to a family called Kelly.  Her aunt’s reaction gave her the next piece of the puzzle.

05:00

Linda 100%

LINDA LAWLESS: And I just said to her, I said “I do know one thing though”, I said, “I’m a Kelly”. And there was dead silence and next thing I heard her going, “Oh my god, oh my god”.

05:15

Newspaper article of ordinations. Photo of Kelly

She said “I don’t know how to tell you this, but he’s a Catholic Priest.”

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Linda’s aunt revealed how Father Joseph Kelly was a great family friend back in the '60s.

05:24

Archival. Car on road/Women swimming

He’d often visit the house and take Linda’s mother and her sisters on picnics and day trips.

05:38

Photo. Linda's mother

A romance blossomed with Linda’s mum who was nearly 20 years younger than him.

05:46

Linda 100%

LINDA LAWLESS:  They said he was a nice man, but they said he was a charmer and he knew exactly what he was doing.

05:52

School photo. Kelly highlighted

When I found out who my father was, the stigma became even bigger again and I remember thinking I can’t tell anybody.

05:59

Linda 100%

I now have to carry the secret. I realised over a period of time that I can’t keep the secret and I need to step forward.

06:09

Millar and Linda in gorge garden

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Linda’s has been using social media to try and find out more about her father, Father Joe Kelly.  She wants recognition from the Catholic church and she’s discovered support for her quest from the other side of the world.

06:27

Travelling to Ireland

Music

06:42

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: It’s in Ireland that children of priests are finding their greatest advocate.  Thousands are using the internet and easier access to DNA testing to discover the truth about their parentage.  In the little village of Ardagh to the west of Dublin I’m meeting the man who’s bringing them all together.

06:51

Millar greets Vinny at door

07:21

Vinny "You're so welcome. Good to see you."

Lisa: "You put the beautiful weather on for me."

07:27

Millar greets Vincent Doyle

Vinny: "I think this is the Vincent you’ve been waiting to meet."

Lisa: "I can’t believe it, there are too many Vincents."

Vinny: "It gets very confusing at times."

Lisa: "It's very Irish."

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  As a child Vincent Doyle spent nearly every

07:40

Photo. Father JJ

weekend here at the parochial house with Father JJ – the man he believed to be his godfather.

07:53

Millar with Vincent in parochial house

VINCENT DOYLE:  It all seemed so much bigger. And when I came here first I said, 'It used to be bigger.' And the priest said, 'No, you used to be smaller.'

07:59

Photo. Vincent and Father JJ

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: JJ was parish priest here at the time and Vincent thought the world of him.

VINCENT DOYLE: I had this amazing childhood

08:08

Vincent 100%

with this man who spoke Greek and Latin and he'd travelled and in the context of Ireland at the time that was quite unique. There was a huge kindness to him.

08:16

Photo. Father JJ and Vincent on dodgem cars

He was a father in everything but the word.

08:28

Photo. Father JJ

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  JJ died when Vincent was 12 and it wasn’t until he was 28 that he finally found out the truth -- JJ was his biological father.

08:32

Vincent 100%

VINCENT DOYLE: I suppose my mother wasn’t sure how to tell me and she wanted me to know. But to me that was the antidote to the worst day of my life – that I had lost him. Because that day I got him back.

08:44

Photo. Priest

I spoke to people afterwards about it and I thought I had this big thing,

08:59

 Vincent 100%

wait 'til you hear this. And they were like, 'Yeah, we kind of knew and I was like, I think everyone knew except me.

09:04

Drone shot. Church exterior

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Even though it was now in the open, people didn’t want Vincent to talk about it.

VINCENT DOYLE:  All these little phrases,

09:10

Vincent 100%

it’s a matter of privacy, discretion.

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: What were they really trying to say?

VINCENT DOYLE:  Shut up. Keep quiet. Bury this.

09:19

Vincent on laptop

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Vincent Doyle did the exact opposite. He decided he'd set up a website which would help others in a similar situation.  He called it COPING  - Children of Priests International.

09:27

Vincent 100%

VINCENT DOYLE:  Within a few months there were all these countries logging on there were hits and google search phrases, and graphs and it took off -- 13,500 people came forward out of 175 countries.

09:43

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  What does that say to you?

09:55

Vincent on laptop

VINCENT DOYLE:  That says that there is a mass need. There’s people looking globally for information on this issue. Why would 13,500 people in 175 countries go on to a search engine on the internet and type in things like,

09:56

Vincent 100%

'My father’s a Catholic priest', 'alimony for priests' kids', 'help, I am pregnant and the father is a Catholic priest.'

10:10

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  No one knows for sure how many children of priests there are, but Vincent has made his own estimates.

10:17

VINCENT DOYLE: We know of 10,000. I could stand before Christ and say ‘I know of 10,000 children of priests’. That’s conservative. That’s very conservative.

10:25

Church interiors

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Vincent realised that children of priests all share a common frustration – that the Church wants to keep them silent.  He is determined to go to the very top and demand recognition.

10:39

VINCENT DOYLE: Ultimately, I am waiting for one thing; I want the Pope to say the words, 'children of priests'. That’s what I want and that will just be the beginning.

10:52

Drone shot over Irish rural church

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  A loving relationship like Vincent Doyle had with JJ is exceptional for children of priests. More often the experience damages the child.

11:01

Millar travelling on train to meet Sarah

Music

11:17

Drone shot over village

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  In this peaceful English country village, I’m going to meet a woman who knows better than anyone the trauma children of priests go through.

SARAH THOMAS:  I think it nearly killed me, to be honest.

11:23

Sarah 100%

I think I internalised the hurt to the point where I’d stopped looking after myself.

11:39

Sarah with teenage daughter at home

Sarah: "Hi sweetheart, want some toast?"

11:45

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Sarah Thomas is a mum now herself… She still finds it hard to accept how her own mother was treated by her father – a trainee priest – when she told him she was pregnant.

11:52

Sarah 100%

SARAH THOMAS:  He went, in her words, berserk, and dumped her on the spot, basically, and hid behind a more senior priest, who in the end masterminded a plan of secrecy to stop her ever telling me anything about him.

12:11

Photos. Sarah as toddler with mother

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  They offered financial support, but only if she kept his identity secret. Their intimidation worked for a while, but eventually Sarah’s mother told her that her father was a Catholic priest.

12:29

Photo. Teenage Sarah

And at 14, Sarah wanted to meet her father.

SARAH THOMAS:  The fact that he was biological father to me was

12:45

Sarah 100%

what interested me. I was convinced that if he met me he would be thrilled and want to – and sad that he’d missed out on those years but really make up for it.

12:53

Photo. Teenage Sarah

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  The reality was very different.

SARAH THOMAS:  Seeing him come into the room, very cold, I felt very full of shame and self-loathing that I was the object of his shame and that there wasn’t anything I could do at that point. I had to sit this meeting out, knowing from his actions and how he was speaking, that it would never go anywhere.

13:04

Church/Millar and Sarah walk in church grounds

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  That encounter started a spiral into darkness. Sarah drank too much and partied too hard to try to blank it all out.

SARAH THOMAS:  I was injured in an accident when I was 20, and I had so many multiple injuries that I was in hospital for a long time, but it was almost like having a second chance at life.

13:24

Sarah 100%

I'm not going to let my life be at all ruined by this, but at the same time I've got a steady flow of creative rage at what happened, and what's happening right now to other priests' children.

13:51

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Instead of turning away from her nightmare, she decided to face it.

14:03

Sarah at uni with PhD supervisor

She’s doing a PhD studying children of priests and has looked at how their experience compares with children who’ve been sexually abused. Her research is throwing up some startling similarities.

SARAH THOMAS:  There are patterns and themes.

14:18

A very large percentage of my participants feel that the shame and stigma and the silencing that they’ve received from the Church and communities has contributed towards huge mental distress. 

14:37

Sarah 100%

I was absolutely staggered when I started analysing my data to find that 56% of my participants had either attempted suicide or had suicide ideation. That’s hugely high.

14:49

Millar and Sarah walk, enter Sarah's home

Music

15:00

Sarah on video call with Linda

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: Through Vincent’s website, COPING International, Sarah and Linda Lawless have forged a friendship and now talk regularly and offer one another support.

15:08

Sarah: "Have you found out anything more?"

Linda:  "I’m slowly getting more information. It's been a big process, but we're still working on it."

15:17

Sarah: "Have you met any new people?"

Linda: "I have spoken to some family recently. So I hope to meet up with them soon."

Sarah: Fantastic. Oh, fantastic. That's amazing.

15:28

London taxis

Music

15:39

Millar walks London street to pub

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  In London, I’m going to meet a group of people who’ve been brought together by COPING. They’re starting to form a community and I’m joining their regular catch-up at the local pub.

15:44

Michael, Jo and Sarah in pub with Millar

MICHAEL: I knew he was a priest when I was a child, but I couldn’t tell them that I knew because it was a big secret.

15:58

JO:  I’m the youngest of five children. They’re all the children of my parents. And I was in my twenties when I found out that actually my natural father is my godfather, who was a Roman Catholic priest.

16:05

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Jo and Michael’s stories are forming part of Sarah’s research. Their friendship has helped them unlock a lifetime of secrets.

16:20

"I know Sarah's been very upfront with us about how tough times have been, I would imagine it’s a bit of a roller coaster?"

16:29

JO: Actually, it's more the emotional side when you hear other people talk about the guilt, because you feel guilty even though it’s not your guilt, that shame, that secrecy, that was what was, for me, the game changer.

16:36

MICHAEL:  Most of the people around it, they’re all dead. There’s only a handful of people now, but you still feel a little bit guilty for talking about it, yeah.

16:49

SARAH THOMAS:  Yeah, I feel guilty. I still feel that shame and stigma even researching it and speaking publicly about it, and it’s something that I have to battle every day, really.

16:59

MICHAEL: With COPING we’ve been able to get together with people, and you can see it, we’re mirrors for each other and you can see things from a different perspective and you realise that you’re not alone.

17:07

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  The big concern is how to help the next generation of children of priests.

17:20

"Do you hold out any hope that the Church will recognise you guys? Is that what you want?"

JO: I don’t, I don’t care what the Catholic Church thinks of me, but I care about, as I say those children now.

17:24

Therefore, it is really important that the Church as an institution recognises that there are children of priests and that there are still children of priests.

17:41

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Children of priests want the Church to be more active on their behalf.

17:51

Ireland. Street GVs

And it's back in Ireland where they may have the best chance of that.

17:56

Music

18:01

Millar to camera

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  I’ve been coming to Ireland for over a decade and I can barely recognise the place. On gay marriage, on abortion, on issues that were once dominated with what the Church said, it's no longer the case. There’s a real sense of progress here, a momentum for change.

18:17

Dublin GVs/Millar walks

Music

18:37

Church statuary

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  In a bid to reject the secrets and lies that have dominated church affairs in Ireland for centuries, the Irish bishops are opting for openness.

18:56

Vincent visits Archbishop

Vincent got in the ear of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin -- one of Ireland’s highest ranking clerics.

19:07

Martin 100%

DIARMUID MARTIN:  He came to tell me his personal story about the fact that his father was a priest and that he was interested in following up the question of children of priests.

19:15

Vincent walks

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  After Vincent’s lobbying, the Irish bishops helped to fund his website and published guidelines for what should happen when a priest fathers a child.

19:26

Martin 100%

Tell me about the Irish bishops' guidelines.

19:37

DIARMUID MARTIN: The Irish bishops have produced guidelines which I think are reasonable guidelines to say how you proceed on this. As I say, they're reasonable, normal but are looked on by some as revolutionary. There’s no need for them to be revolutionary it’s just common sense in many ways and basic common humanity.

19:41

Maynooth church and seminary

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Maynooth is best known as the training ground for Ireland’s priests.  This where the Irish Bishops traditionally meet and where the guidelines were published.

VINCENT DOYLE:  Thank god for the Irish Catholic bishops.

20:03

Vincent 100%

They’re doing something that is extraordinary, absolutely.

20:25

Vincent walks with Millar at Maynooth

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  The Irish guidelines he pushed for put the welfare of the child first, and treat each case individually.  They stop short at asking the priest to step down. Earlier this year, the Vatican admitted it has  guidelines too, but won’t make them public.  Vincent’s read them and can’t see why not.

20:28

Why won’t they make the guidelines public?

20:56

Vincent 100%

VINCENT DOYLE:  Because if you’ve got a solution then you’ve got a problem.

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  But isn’t the Church’s view that the priest has to leave?

20:59

VINCENT DOYLE:  No person, man or woman, should be forced from their job for becoming a parent. How is that Christological? How is that practical? And yet people buy into this argument of 'Congratulations, you’re a father, you’re fired'. This is what’s driving the secrecy. These men, our fathers, my father. All these men are terrified.

21:06

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  So you could still be a good priest and a father?

VINCENT DOYLE:  Absolutely.

21:26

How can a child contradict a priest’s love for God the father, how?

21:30

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Nor does he want the Church to use celibacy as a distraction.

21:37

VINCENT DOYLE: What are we doing when we are talking about celibacy? Who are we talking about? The adult. My opinion is this: let’s take care of the kids first. Anything that distracts from the kids, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is wrong.

21:42

Rome GVs

21:52

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  The children of priests we’ve met are frustrated at how hard it is to get the Church to acknowledge them.

22:01

Millar to camera

I’ve come to Rome to find out why it’s so hard for them to get answers. They’re the victims here – they've done nothing wrong apart from but be born.

And yet their very existence is a problem the Vatican can’t or won’t deal with, at least not publicly.

22:08

Winfield walks

I’ve managed to secure an interview with the Catholic Church, but before that I ask long time Vatican watcher Nicole Winfield what to expect?

22:31

Winfield 100%

A lot of the adult children of priests still feel that there’s immense secrecy about it all. Are you seeing a change at all in the response from the Church?

NICOLE WINFIELD:  It is still a taboo issue,

22:43

even though they’ve acknowledged it’s a problem. It's evidence priests are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and I think any time the Church leadership is confronted with that, the knee jerk reaction is to recoil and not be fully transparent about it.

22:56

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  But coming to Rome to seek answers we may well be disappointed you think?

23:13

NICOLE WINFIELD:  If you can get the guidelines, all power to you. I would love to see them. I think a lot of people would like to see them.

23:18

Vatican GVs

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Over the last few decades the Church has been damaged and disgraced by its cover up of the clerical sexual abuse scandal.  I’m wondering if it’ll be more transparent in its dealings with children of priests.

23:25

Tornielli walks down hallway to interview

Andrea Tornielli is the editorial director of Vatican Communications. He’s agreed to be the Church’s spokesperson.

23:41

"Thank you very much for your time today. We really appreciate you speaking to us about this issue. Thank you."

23:51

Why can’t the guidelines be made public?

24:00

Tornielli 100%

ANDREA TORNIELLI:  These guidelines are not secret. Mr Doyle was able to read them. Anyone involved can read them. Not everything that’s internal, not published, is necessarily secret. These are internal guidelines for the Congregation

24:02

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Is it time to consider relaxing celibacy?

24:25

ANDREA TORNIELLI:  It has been regarded by all the recent popes as a precious gift, so it is not the Church’s intention to change this law. Certainly it’s not a law that should be changed because there are priests who bring children into the world.

24:29

LISA MILLAR, Reporter: Then finally, a moment the children of priests have been waiting for --an acknowledgement of sorts.

24:49

This has been a very big deal, hasn't it, for the Church?

24:55

ANDREA TORNIELLI:   Yes, yes. Not only unfortunately these stories but the abuse cases is really painful and it's important to change mentality. But this is another one, on a different level but so painful for people.

25:00

Millar driving with Linda

Music

25:25

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Back in Australia, Linda Lawless’s journey to find out who she is and more about her father isn’t over.

25:31

It’s been a while since we first met. How have you been going?

25:39

LINDA LAWLESS: Yeah, really good thanks. I've been busy researching family members and different people. And today I'm going to meet Peter Finn, who was a friend of my father's.

25:42

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  How are you feeling?

LINDA LAWLESS:  I'm really excited about it. To me, he's the closest person that I've come across to him yet.

25:54

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  I’ve offered her a lift and a bit of moral support.

26:00

Car pulls up at church

06:07

Finn greets Linda

PETER FINN: Hi Linda, how are you?

LINDA LAWLESS: I’m good. How are you? Lovely to meet you.

PETER FINN:  It's lovely to meet you after all this time too.

LINDA LAWLESS:  Thank you so much for coming today. Greatly appreciated.

PETER FINN:   It's a pleasure. Our conversation on the phone, I found that very valuable. Just to be here today and talk to you, it's lovely too.

26:11

LINDA LAWLESS:  And you know, for you to take the time so I can learn more about my father, it's going to be really, really good.

26:627

Linda walks with Finn to St. Brigid's

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  Peter Finn is a former Catholic priest, who worked alongside Linda’s father. Father Joseph Kelly was a priest here in the '60s. Linda’s mother lived close by. St Brigid’s was where they would meet.

26:32

PETER FINN:  So Joe came down really to relieve and fill in for another priest that I was with who had gone on holiday. 

26:50

Linda and Finn inside church

So very interesting times really, because I got to know Joe in that period quite well. We sort of hit it off really quickly and really easily. So that was great.

LINDA LAWLESS: Yeah, I’ve heard he was well liked.

PETER FINN:  Very well. And even in my eulogy at his funeral I was able to say a lot of things, good things, which you’ve got a copy of, but then now to realise there was another side to him, which I didn’t know…

27:00

LINDA LAWLESS:  It certainly affected my whole family, and my mother and myself, of course.

PETER FINN:  So, feel free to ask me anything you want to know?

LINDA LAWLESS:   (crying) I just can’t at the moment…Thank you so much.  

PETER FINN: That’s okay… That's alright. No, that's fine.

27:29

LISA MILLAR, Reporter:  For Linda, remembering how hard it was for her mother, and finally being able to talk to someone who knew her father, it’s a big step forward, but it’s a difficult one.

27:47

The past is different for each of the children of priests I’ve spoken to,  but they all want the same thing for the future. Freedom to speak openly, the right to be heard, and for the Catholic Church to treat them as individuals, not symbols of their fathers' failure.

28:00

Linda 100%

LINDA LAWLESS:  I’m not doing the lies and the secrecy anymore. I’m not carrying that shame. I have to step past it.

28:20

Home movie footage. Credits [see below]

28:27

Outpoint

28:55