Clergy abuse survivors and advocates endorse Kerry Robinson as new Vatican ambassador
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10-4-21
Longtime Biden ally has insisted that survivors must be a part of "all deliberations, solutions, and plans" to address ongoing abuse crisis in US
Biden preparing for historic first meeting with Pope Francis later this month
Tomorrow morning at 10:30am, survivors of clergy abuse and advocates from Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) and Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will hold a press conference outside President Biden’s frequent place of worship, St. Matthew’s Cathedral (1725 Rhode Island Ave NW) in Washington DC.
In an open letter to President Biden, both groups will formally endorse Kerry Robinson for the Biden administration’s nominee for United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
At the end of this month, President Joe Biden is expected to meet with Pope Francis for the first time in his Presidency. Biden will be the first Catholic President to meet with the Pope since John F. Kennedy. He does so as the US Bishops are bitterly divided over the relationship between Biden’s Catholic faith and political stance on social issues that intersect with Catholic teaching, including abortion, immigration, and same-sex marriage.
Biden has made no secret of his Catholicism. His Catholic faith has been a central part of his campaign, and he has repeatedly affirmed that it is a key element of his moral and ethical decision-making.
Underneath this division, however, is a consensus between Catholic leadership, on the left and right, concerning the ongoing abuse crisis and relationship to financial corruption. A recent poll conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University reveals that 57% of Catholics say they pay attention “a great deal” or “quite a bit” to the clergy abuse crisis. Despite the prominence of the abuse crisis in the United States and around the world, Biden has never spoken publicly about the issue. No Vatican ambassador has ever represented the hundreds of thousands of Americans abused by Catholic clergy or addressed the coverup by the Catholic hierarchy. This is why survivors are taking this unprecedented step to endorse a candidate for the critical position of the United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
Kerry Robinson, a founder of the National Catholic Leadership Roundtable and Trustee of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, is a longtime advocate for transparency, accountability, and justice in diocesan management of the clergy abuse crisis. Robinson brings an impressive set of credentials and experience for the position, but most importantly she understands the centrality of the abuse crisis and the loss of trust in the Catholic Church because of it. She has written, “survivors must be a central part of all deliberations, solutions, and plans'' in response to the abuse crisis. So far this has not been the case.
By selecting Robinson as his administration’s nominee for the Vatican Ambassador, President Biden can demonstrate that he recognizes the issues facing US Catholics, including himself. Despite their seemingly intractable ideological divide, Democrats and Republicans can embrace a candidate that will make this a central part of the US mission at the Vatican embassy.
Survivors expect that when confirmed, Robinson will
Demand the Vatican release all abuse-related documents and evidence to the US Department of Justice and to all state attorneys general investigating clergy abuse and institutional concealment
Call on every Catholic diocese to implement full financial transparency consisting of the release of diocesan finance council meeting minutes, including financial correspondence between the Vatican and dioceses, especially in US bankruptcy proceedings
Arrange the first meeting between US survivors and a sitting US President
The plight of clergy abuse survivors is not far from the Biden family and the President’s own experience. Archmere Academy, the Catholic prep school that the President and his children attended, is now known to have employed pedophile priests, some of whom were teachers and administrators while his sons were students. This is undoubtedly why Beau Biden, while Attorney General of Delaware, was one of the first public officials to champion survivors of clergy abuse. Not only was he instrumental in passing the Child Victims Act in Delaware, his legacy continues through the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children.
As President Biden prepares to meet Pope Francis, he must decide how he will approach the concerns of survivors and US Catholics around these issues of abuse, concealment, and justice. No action would speak more definitively to his commitment to survivors than the nomination of Kerry Robinson as the next US Ambassador to the Holy See.
###