POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
Foreign
Correspondent
2019
Secrets
and Lies
28
mins 55 secs
©2019
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW
2007 Australia
GPO
Box 9994
Sydney
NSW
2001 Australia
Phone:
61 419 231 533
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. |
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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. |
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“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. |
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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. |
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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’. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Lisa Millar goes to
the centre of Catholic power – the Vatican - to find answers. It now
acknowledges the problem, but secrecy rules. |
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“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. |
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Episode tease: |
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: |
|
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 |
CREDITS
Reporter
Lisa Millar
Producer
Bronwen Reed
Research
Anne Worthington
Camera
Ron Ekkel
Editor
Lean Donovan
Assistant
Editor
Tom Carr
Production
Manager
Michelle Roberts
Production
Co-ordinators
Victoria Allen
Nelson Roo
Digital
Producer
Ruth Fogarty
Supervising
Producer
Lisa McGregor
Thanks
to
Maynooth Collect
Executive
Producer
Matthew Carney
foreign
correspondent
abc.net.au/foreign
©
2019 Australian Broadcasting Corporation