Secret deals on priests’ children‘unjust’

Irish Catholic bishops have come out against confidentiality agreements in cases where a priest has fathered a child, according to correspondence between it and newly formed organisation Coping International.

Coping International, which is seeking to support the children and ex-partners of priests in different countries around the world, including Ireland, had written to the Irish Bishops’ Conference regarding the confidentiality agreements — querying if such agreements were ethical.

It based its comments on the UN’s Children’s Rights Commission and its concluding observations on the second periodic report of the Holy See, in which the UN body said: “The committee is concerned about the situation of children fathered by Catholic priests, who, in many cases, are not aware of the identity of their fathers.