Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests – SNAP NZ – has written to Pope Francis urging him to instruct the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference to initiate an urgent, independent and transparent review of the National Office of Professional Standards and its principles and procedures document, A Path to Healing.
SNAP’s unhappy letter to Pope Francis follows the New Zealand Government’s exclusion of faith-based survivors from early compensation pay-outs and a failed appeal to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.
The Government wants faith-based institutions to continue with their own redress schemes.
Abuse survivor and spokesperson for SNAP, Dr Christopher Longhurst (pictured), says it is his opinion that victims and survivors in New Zealand were not being treated justly under the Catholic Church’s redress scheme.
However, Steve Lowe, Bishop of Auckland and Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, counter’s Longhurst’s opinion saying the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference and congregational leaders have listened to survivors through the inquiry hearings and implemented changes.
Lowe, in a statement, told CathNews that the New Zealand Government is in the process of forming an independent redress scheme for survivors of abuse in state and faith-based institutions and that the scheme follows on from interim recommendations made by the NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
He says the Church is continually updating and improving the complaints and disclosure processes to help survivors of abuse and will continue to engage actively on improvements throughout the remaining time of the Royal Commission and beyond.
Lowe says that the Church recognising the introduction of this scheme will result in significant changes to the Church’s National Office of Professional Standards and A Path to Healing.
Longhurst remains unhappy.
He says he wrote to Cardinal Dew in November 2019, to the New Zealand Bishops Conference and even to the Pope’s representative, Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, but his group is being ignored.
Following his unsuccessful bid to attract their attention, Longhurst accuses the Church of both a lack of integrity and competence to deal with the matters.
He alleges that while publicly the leaders of the local Catholic church extend an “open hand to the hope of healing”, behind closed doors they traumatise survivors a second time by violating their own procedures. He accuses the director of the National Office of Professional Standards of falsifying the review report of an independent director.
Writing to the pope, Longhurst says:
“Most sadly, we are being harmed by the very Church office set up to provide healing, the Church’s National Office for Profession Standards, tasked with administering Te Houhanga Rongo – A Path To Healing (APTH).
“Sadly, for some time now, NOPS officials have been breaching APTH’s very principles and procedures in managing complaints cases.
“In one case, the NOPS director even falsified the review report of an independent investigator.
“Consequently, abuse survivors are not only being denied the promised compassionate and fair response but also re-traumatised by the very office set up to provide a path to healing,” Longhurst says in his letter.
Reuters says it is uncertain if the Pope has yet seen the letter.
Sources
- Reuters
- Supplied: SNAP
- Supplied: NZCBC