top of page
'The children of priests are the sleeping giant that the Catholic Church prays will never fully awaken.
In the Western world, sexual coercion is increasingly being recognised as a criminal offence. Catholic church silencing is an immoral and abusive act of violence. There has been insufficient in-depth investigation into the children of priests and the role that the church and its agents play in controlling us.'
from 'Tell No One' by Brendan Watkins
CHILDREN OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS & OUR MOTHERS
ASSOCIATIONS & AGENCIES
SNAP is the largest, oldest and most active self-help group for clergy sex abuse victims. It has more than 25,000 members and support groups meeting in over 60 cities across the world - it is highly regarded.
The following association links do not infer a recommendation of the organization, I have however had positive experiences with the Mothers of the Children of Priests & Good Tidings and believe in the sincerity and lived-experience of the operators. For academic studies into related clerical failure and abuse click here.
INTERNATIONAL (SNAP) Survivors network of those abused by priests
INTERNATIONAL Good Tidings: Support for women & priests in romantic relationships
INTERNATIONAL Mothers of the children of priests
FRANCE Children of Silence: Association for the children of priests
GERMANY The association of Catholic priests & their wives
GERMANY Human rights for priests children
IRELAND Coping International: Catholic church supported apostolate*
UNITED KINGDOM Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors
UNITED KINGDOM Survivors Voices – Pain into Power (UK)
WALES & ENGLAND Safe Spaces (free & independent support service)
MEDIA REPORTS & SITES OF INTEREST
 Dr Doris Reisinger, a former Catholic nun, philosopher, theologian and author discusses reproductive abuse by Catholic priests by way of introducing ABC TVs Compass 'Hidden Children' episode about the thousands of unacknowledged children of Catholic clergy (also linked on our homepage). 2024 CLICK TO VIEW |  Though there are no accurate records publicly available it has been estimated that there are 20,000+ hidden children of Catholic priests globally. A survey of 100 underscores the dire psychological consequences (reference: ABC TV 2019 Foreign Correspondent 'Secrets & Lies'). Why have only a handful of survivors gone public? Because of shame & church confidentiality agreements. 2024 |  'Mother and son Noeleen and Martin Marinovich lived out a reclusive life after Noeleen was abandoned during her pregnancy by a local priest, who left her fighting a financial battle with the Catholic Church. Twenty-seven years later, Noeleen was murdered by her only son.' 2020 CLICK TO READ |
|---|---|---|
 SO, YOU’RE THE CHILD OF A PRIEST? It may not be wise to initially seek counsel from the institution that houses/ed a potential perpetrator, certainly not without appropriate support. It's suggested you consider psychological support before contacting the church: it should be independent & secular. You should also consult a lawyer with regard your rights & to determine if a crime has occurred. The media, police & politicians can also be powerful allies. 2024 |  Archbishop Lambert deviating from the script here, "We are also told the priests have been directed to register one of their children with the Diocese officially for purposes of inheritance." This is of course at the heart of the disowned children of priests scandal - money - regardless of the muddied definition of clerical celibacy the Catholic Church will not tolerate the notion of compensating myriad abused mothers and their unwanted children. 2024 CLICK TO VIEW |  |
 Six cases have come to light of children fathered by supposedly celibate Catholic priests in New Zealand. One of them is a 6 year old girl. Her mother, and the adult children from the other five cases, have been in touch in the last four months with an online support network that is lifting the veil of secrecy around a world-wide scandal for the church, of supposedly celibate priests secretly fathering hundreds, if not thousands, of children. 2018 CLICK TO VIEW |  'Blind Spots in the Fight Against Clerical Abuse' with former Roman Catholic nun, philosopher, theologian and author, Dr Doris Reisinger. 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |  ABC TV Australia: It’s been an open secret for years. Catholic priests fathering children in breach of their vows. After suffering in silence and shame for years, those children are speaking out, demanding answers and recognition from Rome. Like other scandals it has faced, the Church has swept the issue of children of priests under the carpet. 'The church operates on a system where if it can ignore you and hope you go away.' 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Linda Kelly-Lawless & Oliver Cosgrove reveal the pain of being abandoned by their priest fathers on 'The Project' (Channel 10). The facade of clerical celibacy is about Catholic wealth - retaining inheritances within the church. And for this reason, the celibacy tradition will likely never be reversed. 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |  Sister Fabian of the Australian Sisters of Charity, best known as the founder of Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Private Hospital ... Her 1998 obituary says, ‘As a young nun she was approached by the legendary Archbishop Daniel Mannix to expand the maternity hospital then being run by the Charity nuns for impoverished mothers, to look after the single women and children whose “situation” had been created by priests.’ CLICK TO VIEW |  |
 The sons and daughters of priests often grow up without the love and support of their fathers, and are often pressured or shamed into keeping the existence of the relationship a secret. They are the unfortunate victims of a church that has, for nearly 900 years, forbidden priests to marry or have sex, but has never set rules for what priests or bishops must do when a clergyman fathers a child. 2017 CLICK TO VIEW |  |  Catholic priests in France: A life of celibacy? The Catholic Church imposes drastic restrictions on those who serve it. Unlike monks, priests do not take a vow of chastity but are bound to celibacy and therefore total abstinence. Yet many priests have active sex lives and are in loving heterosexual or homosexual relationships. For this special full-length documentary, French priests and their partners agreed to speak out about their double lives. 2021 CLICK TO VIEW |
 "There are numerous issues that lead to heated debates within the Roman Catholic Church, but perhaps no issue proves to be as vigorously opposed as abortion. Yet, despite the church’s hard-line position on this topic, an underlying irony remains that abusive have been known to advocate or even arrange abortions for the women they have impregnated following sexual violations. In certain cases, this is even facilitated or sanctioned by their supervising bishops." 2024 CLICK TO VIEW |  Wise advice for other children of priests and our mothers. The church, and its supposedly independent agents, may not have your best interests at heart. |  Secular Psychological Counselling: Dr Katherine Levi (located in Victoria Australia). Katherine was CEO / EO of influential organisations including Child Wise, Big Brothers Big Sisters & the Australian Council for Children & Youth. She was the inaugural Director of Professional Standards at the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. She also appeared as a subject matter expert witness on grooming at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. |
 Engelhardt hoped she would find support and comfort, but instead she was given an ultimatum: adopt the baby to another family, sign a confidentiality agreement and receive financial assistance for her silence. She could never have contact with her son or lover again. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |  In the mid-1960s, he began an ethnographic study of the sexual behavior of supposed celibates; the report, which was released in 1990, claimed that more than half of the priests he studied had been or were currently involved in sexual relationships. 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |  Many of the children of priests, and probably many more of our mothers have been silenced with confidentiality agreements. These agreements muzzle the abused and ensure bad behavior continues. They’re an insidious tool weaponised by the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. Legislation is required to annul them. CLICK TO VIEW |
 The Belgian Catholic Church is accused of taking at least 30,000 babies from unwed mothers and handing them off to adoptive parents in exchange for money over the course of three decades.The Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws revealed the extent of the alleged scheme, which spanned from at least the 1950s into the 1980s. CLICK TO VIEW |  “It started very long time ago and our father has to do the right thing, at least once,” Erebon said. “He needs to make it right. And the church should not continue with the cover-up. They should just make this right.” 2020 CLICK TO VIEW |  Australian Senator David Shoebridge has called for a federal inquiry. “There clearly needs to be an inquiry which has the power to compel the truth out of the church,” he says.“We cannot leave these people who were literally stolen at birth by the church to do this fight alone. This is a matter that I think needs to be closely considered by the Federal Attorney General and by the federal government ..." 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |
 |  RNZ reveals what's believed to be the first time a New Zealander child of a Catholic priest has gone public. "I understand how you can love somebody and that I think they had a wonderful, loving relationship... and they loved me very much."However, the fact her mother, raising the family as a single mother, did not tell her while she was alive "must have been a terrible burden for her to bear, and a great sadness as well"". 2018 CLICK TO VIEW |  "I've interviewed many priest children from around the globe — and some of their mothers, and some former priests who've also fathered children. One thing that's common across any country in any culture with children of priests is the secrecy. And over 70 per cent of the participants I've interviewed say they feel shame and stigma" 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 "The Holy See is continuing to draw a veil over the "invisible" children of thousands of priests, despite three United Nations reports asking the Vatican to protect the children fathered by clerics. Rome has failed to respond nearly a decade after the UN directed the Holy See to "assess the number of children fathered by Catholic priests" & "find out who they are" "The Committee also recommends that the Holy See ensure that churches no longer impose confidentiality agreements" 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |  Association Statement CLICK TO READ |  ' ... Catholic priests could happily marry until the 12th century, when ecumenical meetings known as the Lateran councils banned them from doing so. According to the Vatican’s secretary of state, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the ban wasn’t strictly enforced until the Council of Trent in the 16th century.' 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Church leaders wanted his mother to cover up her relationship with a priest. CLICK TO VIEW |  "For clergy sex abuse survivors, whom church and denominational leaders have often lied to, deceived and betrayed — again and again and again — maximum transparency about the entirety of the reporting process is essential for cultivating trust .." Though not related to Catholic issues this is a salutary reminder to be wary of so called "independent" agencies. 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |  Claims of 50,000 children of priests: 4,000 children of priests not educated by them in France. According to the association Full Day, France would have 4,000 children that parent priests did not educate, 3,000 in Germany and 50,000 in the world (out of 414,000 priests). 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow: Jim Graham The Boston Globe Spotlight Team Video: All of his questions finally brought Jim Graham to a kitchen table in Buffalo, face to face with an elderly aunt and uncle, perhaps the only living people who could tell him what he needed to know. 2017 CLICK TO VIEW |  CLICK TO VIEW |  As the Catholic Church of France is coming to terms with scandals of clergy sexual abuse and abused women religious, other victims of canon law have been asking for recognition. They are the sons and daughters of priests. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 For decades, the Catholic Church rarely acknowledged the fact that supposedly ‘celibate’ priests were fathering children. The scale & impact of these secretive births is only now coming to light. The Vatican does not deny that there could be as many as 10,000 children of priests ... Many of them (now adults) describe childhoods separated from their fathers; shrouded in secrecy & shame. Three of them, Vincent Doyle, Michael McGuirk & Sarah Thomas tell their stories. 2020 CLICK TO VIEW |  'Children of priests’ is a manipulative term propagated by the church and its agents. Yes, we were once children, but every ‘child’ I’ve spoken with is now over 40 years of age; our truth is usually hidden until late in life. ‘Children of priests’ justifies others speaking on our behalf, as though we are forever infants, incapable. It is coercive, condescending and paternalistic. As a marginalised and voiceless legion, we have allowed others to do the talking for us for far too long. B.Watkins |  But it turns out even the legend could not live up to the true scope of Father Gigante’s full life. After he died in October, his will revealed two more startling facts: He was a multimillionaire. And he left nearly all his fortune to a single beneficiary — his 32-year-old son. 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |
 What will become of the call from Australian Senator David Shoebridge for an independent inquiry into the children of Catholic priests? It's one of the first calls made anywhere in the world by a senior politician for a secular government inquiry. It should be noted that in August '23 the first serious request for accountability was made. Maybe not today, but an inquiry will happen. CLICK TO VIEW |  "He was a very good priest, a wonderful person, much loved, respected," she told RNZ, in what's believed to be the first time a New Zealander who is the child of a Catholic priest has spoken out. 2018 CLICK TO VIEW |  Episode featuring Linda Lawless, the hidden daughter of an Australian priest. 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Adult clergy sexual misconduct (CSM), also known as clergy sexual abuse (CSA), is often misunderstood. Much of the confusion comes from a lack of education and not understanding that adults can be groomed, exploited, and sexually abused in the church, not just children. Therefore, it is important to understand particular definitions to help clarify the issue and better comprehend the causes and effects of CSM.CLICK TO VIEW |  John Dreisbach, now 28, first learned he was the son of a former priest when he was 8 years old. His parents met when his mother was a college student and his father was a seminarian. Dreisbach told NBC10 in a first television interview of the pain after learning that church leaders wanted his mother to cover up her relationship with a priest. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |  This significant judgement may have opened the door for the hidden children of priests to litigate (we’ve always been considered ‘secondary victims’ and hence ineligible). If only the compassionate church acknowledged the pain caused by their clerics. This is where the money collected from elderly pensioners will be spent, fighting in court, losing, appealing, etc. CLICK TO VIEW |
 Catholic Church's massive wealth revealed - The Catholic Church in Australia is worth tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the country’s biggest non-government property owners, and massively wealthier than it has claimed in evidence to major inquiries into child sexual abuse. 2018 CLICK TO VIEW |  The Vatican is Hiding Children of Priests — Rome Dispatch Video. April 2023 'The Holy See ignores UN request to out clerical parenting and won't help children fathered by priests. Watch commentary from Church Militant’s Rome correspondent Dr Jules Gomes.2023 CLICK TO VIEW |  He was a 24-year-old seminarian ... she was an idealistic 19-year-old psychology student. He wanted to teach. She wanted to be a missionary. They hung out at a now-defunct bar to drink draft beer and eat soft pretzels. When Theresa Engelhardt became pregnant with their son 15 years later, she ended her relationship with the Rev. Robert Dreisbach ... during the years that followed, the diocese offered child-support payments, she said, in exchange for her silence. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Some informed comment in The Economist pointing out that abolishing clerical celibacy will not repair the abuse crisis in the church. The Catholic Church - and its agents - freely allows celibacy to be the discussion rather than acknowledge factual data which demonstrates that the church places the institution above the abused. |  |  Sarah Thomas found out her father was a priest and went on to try to make contact with him. "I’d been told he was a lecturer, but being quite inquisitive I’d always sensed something was amiss and there was information I hadn’t been told," she says. "My mother had been made to feel very fearful about revealing his identity." 2017 CLICK TO VIEW |
 All that is different now is cosmetic change. Power abuse is in the DNA of the hierarchy. It’s their currency. Like a crime gang they operate within their own rules. Bishops and cardinals and even popes, as we’ve just seen with Benedect XVI’s “non-apology” apology over his part in organisational malfeasance, know each other’s secrets. They know each other’s weak spots. And that’s where their power resides 2022.CLICK TO VIEW |  Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow - The Boston Globe video. 'All I ever wanted was for him to take me out in public for an ice cream and say, ‘I’m so proud of my daughter’ said Chiara, a 36-year-old Toronto woman who has known that her father was a priest since she was a toddler. 2021 CLICK TO VIEW |  The largest, oldest and most active support group for those wounded by religious & institutional authorities. CLICK TO VIEW |
 Four Catholic Priests Who Fathered Children Remain In Ministry. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has confirmed a handful of its priests have fathered children over the years, despite their vows of celibacy, including four who remain in the ministry. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |  Celibacy contributes to a culture of mendacity in the priesthood. In the 2015 movie "Spotlight," the voice of Richard Sipe (played by Richard Jenkins) says over the speaker phone, “If you really want to understand the crisis, you need to start with the celibacy requirement.” He continues, “That was my first major finding. Only 50% of the [Catholic] clergy are celibate ...most of them are having sex with other adults .." 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |  Astounding that the views put by Coping International (an Irish children of priests association) to the Australian Catholic Church are not representative of the majority of the Australian sons and daughters of the ordained in this country. However, the article did include one revelation 'Since the inception (of the Coping website) there have been in excess of 150,000 hits on the site from Australia alone'. 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |
 How the Catholic Church Hid Away Hundreds of Irish Children | New York Times Documentaries Ireland wanted to forget, but the dead don't always stay buried. One woman made it her mission to unearth the truth. 2017 CLICK TO VIEW |  CLICK TO VIEW |  Australian Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests CLICK TO VIEW |
 After decades of searching, I discovered that my birth parents were a Catholic priest and a nun. My memoir explores the questions, anxieties and reflections arising from this hidden past. CLICK TO VIEW |  2014 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. CLICK TO VIEW |  Another scandal is engulfing the Catholic Church. At a time when the Vatican has taken its most concrete steps to address a long ordeal with sex abuse and coverups, a growing chorus of nuns is speaking out about the suffering they have endured at the hands of the priesthood, including rape, forced abortion, emotional abuse and labor exploitation. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Broken Rites Australia is not connected with any religious denomination. However, each member of the Broken Rites executive team had a Catholic background and each of us has been hurt by Catholic Church sex-abuse - and by the church's habit of cover-up. We are therefore motivated to do research on this problem.The first Broken Rites cases, which we began researching in 1993, resulted in a number of Catholic priests and religious Brothers being convicted in the criminal courts.CLICK TO VIEW |  'Tell No One' by Brendan Watkins |  CLICK TO VIEW |
 Pope Francis has for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns and says he is committed to doing more to fight the problem. Speaking to reporters on the papal plane, he noted that Pope Benedict XVI had taken action against a France-based order after some of its religious sisters had been reduced to "sexual slavery" at the hands of the priest who founded the order and other priests. 2019 CLICK TO VIEW |  The Irish government has been accused of overlooking the “hidden” children of priests in its response to the Commission of Investigation’s Report on Mother and Baby Homes. 2021 CLICK TO VIEW |  The most dangerous moment in any scandal is when anger shades into indifference, when revelations that once had the power to shock become so normalised that they scarcely register. CLICK TO VIEW |
 What would it feel like to have a father? When I entered Smith College in 1954, I had no idea. Adopted as a baby into a family of self-sufficient women in the mill town of Norwood, Mass., I was fatherless. Could you miss something you never had? I would begin to find out on Fathers’ Weekend, an annual Smith ritual. Mimi Bull is the author of 'Celibacy, a Love Story: Memoir of a Catholic Priest’s Daughter.' LA Times 2020 CLICK TO VIEW |  Did the former bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, father a child 40+ years ago? Was the child’s mother a Derry nurse? Was the baby secretly adopted through the mother and baby homes run by the nuns? 2024 CLICK TO VIEW |  ABC TV 'Compass' Hidden Children. Brendan Watkins is the son of a priest and nun. It took him 30 years to find out, but he's not the only one. Brendan meets other hidden children and their mothers, who've suffered from the Church's silence and denial. 2023 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Abused by Nuns: This website is here to give voice to those who are afraid, embarrassed or ashamed to seek healing, through restorative justice, for the harm done by vowed religious women, nuns or sisters CLICK TO VIEW |  CLICK TO VIEW |  The Australian Catholic in Australia has made an out-of-court compensation settlement with a woman who was sexually abused by a priest for several years from the age of 15, resulting in the birth of two children. An agreement awarded her $75,000. The church and priest admitted no responsibility. The woman was bound not to disclose information about the relationship. Herald Sun. 2002 CLICK TO VIEW |
 Brendan Watkins BBC UK interview. 2022 CLICK TO VIEW |  We are a campaign committed to end the misuse of NDSs (confidentiality agreements) to buy the silence of victims. CLICK TO VIEW |
© 2024 All Rights Reserved
We respect and honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present, and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions, and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on this land and commit to building a brighter future together.
bottom of page