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- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 1 month ago by
Hannah Robinson.
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May 21, 2016 at 7:55 pm #105283
AnonymousGuestDear Hannah:
You are raising awareness of priests’ Secret Children right here as well as the book you wrote. I think your quest is a good, sensible quest: to eliminate the vow of celibacy from being mandatory for Catholic priests. I hope this takes place and sooner than later. But I have little hope this can happen in the next hundred years or so.
How many Secret Children (I like the term, secret children) are there in any particular country, I wonder. If there was a way to get many Secret Children united, I can imagine it would be powerful to … organize a march or the like, a march to Rome. That would get the cameras rolling. So this is what I would do, look for more and more Secret Children, get them together and organize some News/ camera worthy event, to get on the News.
Also, in the U.S there are Talk Shows on TV, and I wonder if there are such where you live. I can see a talk show being interested in your story.
How about your own website, do you have one? A website where you will communicate with other Secret Children and supportive-of-your cause Catholics as well as the public in large. You could call that website Celibacy’s Secret Children, or such.
What do you think?
anita
May 22, 2016 at 1:00 am #105288
Hannah RobinsonParticipantHi Anita,
Thank you for your reply! I agree with everything you said, getting the cameras rolling is the answer as that is the best way to get the message out in the open. I’ve always been a bit shy but am trying to get up the courage to do this! I live in the UK but am friends with several priests children in the US, through copinginternational.com. I think the founder of coping international is planning a big media thing later this year and wants as many secret children (it is a good term!) to join in, the problem is that many have been threatened and are very scared of talking in public – I was threatened too but eventually decided to do it anyway. I have a facebook page that also talks about the book https://www.facebook.com/spiritualjourneysNDEs/ but I think the idea of a website is really good. Its really hard to estimate numbers of priests children around the world because of the secrecy and fear that stops people talking (many think they are the only ones in that situation) but in the UK and Ireland there is minimum 6000 secret children, in the US, where Richard Sipe says only half of Catholic priests are celibate at any one time, there are thousands, in South Africa someone did a study and found 45% of Catholic priests there are not celibate and many have families, in Kenya a priest recently said he thinks at least half the priests there are not celibate, and in the Philippines there is apparently a crèche for priests kids!
Thanks so much for your help and support xxx
May 22, 2016 at 7:10 am #105292AnonymousGuestDear hannahava:
I saw your book cover on the link above (don’t have Facebook myself… by choice). So Coping International is planning a big media event. Good.
Regarding Secret Children’s fear, if there is a website out there for Secret Children, if they can sign in anonymously, with some feel of safety being anonymous, maybe they will open up on such a website. But how to get the website known, I don’t know.
The numbers of Secret Children in the world is astounding!
And it is not only the Catholic Church’s doing: it is in a big way their making, but the individual priests are responsible as well. I don’t know how they live with themselves!
anita
May 23, 2016 at 4:53 am #105354
InkyParticipantHi hannahava,
How did people threaten you? Or was it your father or his family that did?
Some good news is this Pope IS more open minded than any other ~ my step dad and I were talking that the Church will probably get rid of the celibacy rule one day. The Church is in very real trouble because of it, and I hope you show the book and the media thing to your father. I would totally demand that he is part of your life. And hang out every freaking day in his church and OPENLY tell people he is your father. Do not remain silent. Call their bluff. This makes me so angry!!
Wishing you all the best,
Inky
May 24, 2016 at 5:41 am #105483Hannah RobinsonParticipantHi Anita and Inky, thanks so much for your messages. I was threatened “politely” by members of the church who wrote letters (which I still have) saying that if I spoke about this, bad things would happen. Not sure what things they meant? I agree with you that the pope is definitely more open minded than any other, he seems like a nice guy, I wish I could have a chat with him one to one! He seems open to the idea of mandatory celibacy ending, and he has shown his support for Coping International, so have the United Nations, who have ‘expressed concern’ for the way priests’ kids are treated. More priests children are speaking openly about their situations later in the year, so you might see more in the press. I really think it needs opening up in public as it is too much of a big issue for individuals to deal with on their own, especially when the scale of it is known. Thanks for your support, it really does mean a lot, Hannah xx
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