Survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church across
Asia and Oceania have expressed their concerns about the
Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ Second
Annual Report.
“Without real open
engagement with SNAP and survivors directly, their
credibility must remain at zero,” says John Brown, an
Australian survivor of abuse by clergy, regarding the
Pontifical Commission’s Second Annual Report.
While
the Vatican Commission reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s
“commitment to placing victims and survivors of abuse at the
centre of its safeguarding mission,” victims and survivors
who reached out to the Commission from Asia and Oceania were
ignored.
The report failed to mention how church
leaders across Asia and Oceania remain unaccountable and
non-transparent to their congregations and the broader
community about the nature and extent of abuse and how they
are responding on the ground today.
For example, in
New Zealand, Catholic bishops have now engaged lawyers to
threaten victims and survivors of having their complaints
dismissed if they do not remain silent about alleged
breaches of redress principles and procedures.
In an
“Open Letter to the People of Asia & Oceania,” the
survivors addressed their concerns about the Pontifical
Commission’s work.
The letter
reads:
OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF ASIA &
OCEANIA
28 October 2025
To Pontifical
Commission for the Protection of Minors
Via
e-mail: info@tutelaminorum.va,
cc.
nuntius@nunciature.nz,
na.australia@diplomat.va,
nu_office_tokyo@yahoo.co.jp
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Second
Report On Abuse And Safeguarding: Section On
Asia/Oceania
Dear Pontifical Commission for
the Protection of Minors
Tēnā koutou
katoa,
Ni sa bula
vinaka,
Wominjeka,
Greetings from
the Asia/Oceania region.
We greet you in
the languages of the Māori and Fijian peoples, and the
language of the Kulin people of
Australia.
Thank you for your Second Report on
Abuse.
Your report mentioned abuse and
safeguarding in the Asia/Oceania region and the challenges
in this region. Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia are two
major countries heavily impacted by abuse in the Catholic
Church in this region. Your report did not address the
ongoing abuse and failure of your church leaders to
authentically safeguard in these two vital nations. These
nations were even excluded from your map on page 166. They
sit to the southeast of the map you
displayed.
Neither were the Survivors Network
of those Abused By Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa New Zealand,
Australia, Fiji and the Pacific Islands, and Japan, major
players in responding to abuse and experiencing the
“safeguarding” of your church leaders in these
countries, contacted by you for your
reporting.
We ask: How credible can a report by
the Pontifical Commission be, commenting on abuse and
safeguarding in this region, without any input from the
major players dealing with abuse and safeguarding in that
region?
Once again the people who matter the
most, the victims and survivors, have been ignored in your
institutional church-centred approach. Handpicking token
victims is not helpful. From your report, it appears that
you interviewed one victim in Tonga. We are not your
commodities. When you do this, and ignore survivor groups
who reach out to you, it comes across as
superficial.
Engaging with major survivors
groups on the ground in Asia/Oceania, with mutual respect,
responding to them when they reach out to you, before
commenting on their reality and experiences, may help make
your reporting more credible.
We hope you might
contact us in the future before commenting on our reality of
abuse and safeguarding in the Asia/Oceania
region.
Sincerely,
Donald
McLeish
Leader
SNAP
Australia
Mary
Speller
Co-leader
SNAP Aotearoa New
Zealand
Felix
Fremlin
Leader
SNAP Fiji/Pacific
Islands
Harumi
Suzuki
Leader
SNAP
Sendai/Japan
