Vatican yet to really prove it can be trusted

TRUST and an inability to trust – anyone – ever again is something that sex abuse and particularly child sex abuse victims speak of regularly.

For women that have never disclosed to anyone a childhood where they were raped and sexually assaulted repeatedly, the decision to eventually face head on this appalling wrongdoing, and indeed their abuser, is like volunteering to turn around and walk back into that the eye of that childhood nightmare.

Having to disclose intimate details of abuse to the gardaí and HSE is horrendous, but the thought of trusting another man in a collar is often a bridge too far to cross for clerical abuse victims, especially in light of the numerous reports in recent years highlighting a “systematic cover up” by the global Catholic Church.