Call For Pope Leo To Issue Abuse Zero Tolerance Policy
A Fijian abuse survivor is urging the new head of the Catholic church to adopt a zero tolerance policy for child sex abuse. Susana Suisuiki, Pacific Waves presenter/producer
A Fijian abuse survivor is urging the new head of the Catholic church to adopt a zero tolerance policy for child sex abuse.
Felix Fremlin was seven years old when he was molested by a New Zealand Marist Brother at his primary school in Suva.
Although he had received a written apology and FJD$15,000 (approx US$6,680) in financial compensation from the Marist Brothers Order of New Zealand and the Pacific, Fremlin said it's not enough.
Speaking to Pacific Waves, Fremlin said culture and faith prevents many people in the Pacific from speaking out.
'It's a Pacific island thing, everybody looks upon the church as messengers of God, and so for people to talk about it… it's a taboo thing,' he said.
Seeking mental health support is also a struggle for Fremlin.
'So here, we don't have any specialists where survivors can go to for counselling. The church here has offered counselling but the counsellors here belong to the church itself. So when you go for counselling, you report back to the church.'
Fremlin also expressed his dissatisfaction over Pope Leo's appointment as the new pontiff, claiming the former cardinal had allegedly concealed abuse cases of three women while he served as a bishop in Peru in 2022.
However, Fremlin said the onus is now on Pope Leo to stand with abuse survivors, calling for him to enact the zero tolerance law.
An earlier attempt was done in November 2024 when former Jesuit priest, Reverand Hans Zollner, joined abuse survivors at a press conference in Rome urging Pope Francis to apply the zero-tolerance law throughout the entire 1.4 billion-member church.
The law would effectively remove any priests guilty of abuse from the ministry.
For Fremlin, it's about taking concrete steps in protecting the most vulnerable.
'When survivors tried to seek or converse with the church, the church gives them the runaround, and always the lawyers,' he said.
'My experience in Fiji is that they bring up the lawyers and then they hide behind the lawyers you know, so I wish the pope would come on this – it's just something that he can put into law that the survivors can go to, without the church giving them the runarounds.'
In a statement sent to RNZ Pacific, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference said significant work has been undertaken to 'promote a culture of awareness and vigilance'.
An immediate risk assessment is carried out once a complainant in New Zealand comes forward. Any risk identified would result in the accused priest to step down.
For those convicted of abuse, the conference said the policies in place would permanently remove them from the ministry.
The conference also said that abuse survivors can seek a mental health counsellor of their choice.
'If they don't have already a counsellor, the church can provide them a list of counsellors to choose from – with some or all being people without ties to the church.'
Even if Pope Leo was to eventually adopt a zero-tolerance policy, Fremlin said it'll do little to restore his faith in the church.
'It's like asking the cow to jump over the moon. It's very hard for [the survivors] to come out openly.
'We're just hoping for something concrete you know, written in black and white, that states they're doing something about it.'
Pacific survivors deserve more justice – advocate
A long-standing advocate of Pacific abuse survivors said they deserve more justice.
Dr Murray Heasley, who was instrumental in Fremlin's case, said the payout that Fremlin and his brother John received is 'outrageous'.
'It's about dignity; it's about human rights,' he said.
'How can you be paying a fraction of the money to a Fijian survivor abused by a New Zealander in Fiji, particularly if you take into consideration some of the notion of the colonial background and the assumption of superiority of Western culture at the time… The colonial mentality seems to still be in place.
'If you happen to be a Fijian survivor that got sexually molested by a New Zealander, you're worth less as a human being? Than a Pasifika abused in New Zealand? Why the differentiation?
'It's absolutely outrageous and it has to be revisited now. The FMS Marist Brothers have massive resources.'
The New Zealand Bishop Conference said each case that the church considers is unique and so is each response. Part of the response can include an ex gratia payment to a survivor as part of the 'healing process'.
However, they also said that 'comparisons cannot be made between different cases across the various components of each process'.
Last year, New Zealand journalist Pete McKenzie broke the story in the New York Times of how the Pacific was used as a 'dumping ground' for accused priests.
Heasley said it was a 'standard procedure'.
'It's extremely common to shift predators around. It was called the geographic cure. It didn't cure anything.
'The worst predators were those who were fluent in the local language, Fiji and Samoan and Tongan, because parents trusted them. They used the language to predate and groom.'
The New Zealand Catholic Bishop's Conference responded with a statement they had issued last year in response to McKenzie's story.
'We were given 10 or 11 specific names and NONE had any record of allegations of abuse before they were assigned to ministry in the Pacific. It was anything but 'common practice', the statement said.
'Catholic priests and religious [orders] have regularly been appointed to the Pacific Islands to support the faith life of communities there. For many religious orders, the Pacific is part of the same province as New Zealand.
'There is no record of any of the nine men about whom [McKenzie] enquired being accused of abuse before the order of diocese appointed to them to the Pacific. Allegations against some were not received until after their death.'
As for Pope Leo's alleged handling of abuse cases in Peru, Heasley said he's concerned.
'We've seen pushback from people inside the Catholic Church calling these women 'liars'. It's an astonishing thing where you have so-called advocates of women's voices, the silence of women's voices coming in behind the pope who they see as a fellow Peruvian because he has joint citizenship.'
He said canon lawyer Brendan Daly has called the sexual abuse of children the greatest threat to the Catholic church.
'None of these folks are dealing with this, and even to this point, with this new pope has yet to say anything except to deny the accusation. He has not reached out to sexual survivors, and without that, he is not an acceptable pope.'
The New Zealand Catholic Bishop Conference said there are many first-hand reports 'including from victims and survivors of abuse' that have shared their appreciation for how well then-Bishop Prevost handled the cases in Peru.
'He played a pivotal role in having a religious community shut down – which is a rare and severe course of action,' the statement read.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
10 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Unique brass plaque goes missing in Rolleston
The plaque marking the site of the first rural Catholic parish has gone missing. Photo: Police A unique brass plaque has gone missing in Rolleston and police need your help to find it. The plaque disappeared from near the corner of Boundary and Shands Rds sometime before July 18. "If you've seen this plaque, or can assist in our enquiries, we'd love to get it back onto its memorial boulder where it belongs," police said in a statement. "Please call 105 or contact Police online at click 'Update Report', and use the reference number 250721/7184."
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Hamilton brawl: 20-year-old killed was celebrating upcoming birthday
A cordon on Alexandra Street in Hamilton. Photo: RNZ / Daniel Gilhooly Police say the 20-year-old killed after a brawl in Hamilton at the weekend was celebrating his upcoming birthday at the time. Locals near to the scene of a fatal brawl in Hamilton at the weekend have voiced there concerns about safety in the area. Police have launched a homicide investigation after the death of a 20-year-old man following a fight on Alexandra Street just after midnight on Sunday. Three others were also injured, some seriously, but have since been discharged from hospital. RNZ understands a sharp weapon may have been involved. Detective inspector Daryl Smith says they are continuing to investigate. "We are speaking to a number of witnesses and people involved in the altercation and are making a number of enquiries to locate the offender and the weapon or weapons that were used," he said. "At the time, Alexandra Street was busy with cars and pedestrians. We think it's highly likely that critical information was recorded on dashcam or cell phones. " Smith said anyone with photos or videos taken between 11.30 on Saturday night and 12.30 on Sunday morning can upload them to a dedicated web portal. "There is still a lot of work ahead of us to understand the full circumstances of what occurred, but the investigation team is committed to piecing the many fragments together." An RNZ reporter on the scene on Monday saw a trail of blood on the floor of a container walkway on Alexandra Street. A Wintec student, who uses an art studio on the same street as the told RNZ she doesn't feel safe in that area at night. The art student, who didn't want to be named, said it was frightening to have the attack happen to young people so close by. "My brother and his friends were out in town drinking that night, and one of our friends was going to be going into the studio that night, and she decided not to, thankfully," she said, "It could have been anyone." A business owner on the same street, who RNZ has also agreed not to name, said the area usually attracted a young crowd. "This'll be the first time that it's happened since we've opened," she said. "I'm worried all the time." Police say anyone with information on what happened should get in contact . RNZ approached the office of the city's mayor, Paula Southgate, for comment. A representative for the mayor said she would not be commenting while the investigation was ongoing. Bar workers were unable to access their cars parked on the street and were told by police to either walk home or Uber, sources told RNZ. Police said there will continue to be a visible police presence in Hamilton as the investigation continues, as well as reassurance patrols in the community. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
11 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Even as air-raid sirens blare in wartime, Ukrainians wait for the traffic light to change
Anyone new to Ukraine notices the disconnect between the front line and much of daily life farther away. Complicated espresso drinks are still sold at service stations; pizza and sushi are still on offer; and rave parties still rave, even if they end at 11pm, in time for the midnight curfew. The desire for order is core to how Ukrainians cope in this fourth year of Russia's full-scale invasion. Traffic lights seem to be the most obvious sign of how Ukrainians hold onto normality. Red means stop. Green means go. There is no yellow light here, no caution, no chancing it. Even during air-raid alarms. 'Even when I walk my dog in the evening and there are no cars at all, I still wait at the kerb,' said Volodymyr Yeremenko, 63, a resident of Pryluky, a city of about 52,000 people about 145km east of Kyiv, who had come to the capital for a doctor's appointment. Spotting a foreigner in Ukraine is easy. They cross when the light is still red, or, God forbid, wander in traffic, something that is a hobby (or death wish) in cities like New York. Ukrainians have been known to shake their heads or to caution them not to cross. Ukrainians say strictly obeying traffic signals was a peculiarity here long before the war. Maybe it's a way to show they are more like the people in notoriously law-abiding street-crossing nations such as Finland or Germany. 'In Lviv, it's striking how people obey pedestrian traffic lights, even when there are no cars around,' wrote Johannes Majamaki, 24, a Finnish law student, on social media recently. Majamaki, who often visits Ukraine, posted a photograph of pedestrians waiting on a carless corner. 'It feels like being back home in Helsinki,' he noted. Putting firm numbers on how widespread law-abiding behaviour at traffic lights is in Ukraine is difficult. Pedestrians wait for the light at a crossing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 20. Photo / Brendan Hoffman, the New York Times The Kyiv police did not respond to repeated questions for data on the number of tickets issued for crossing against a red light. The offence, a US$6 fine, is lumped together with offences by animal-drawn vehicles and errant bicycles, so it's impossible to parse out the pedestrian violations. But Anton Grushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, said he thought that waiting patiently at the light was a cultural habit. He said he typically crossed the street only on a green light. He said that was his custom, even if there were no cars, in 2005 and today, in the middle of the war. He added that he had not noticed any change in Ukrainians' street-crossing behaviour since the Russians invaded in February 2022 because the war had been normalised for most people. 'This is more a matter of habit — something the war hasn't really changed,' Grushetskyi said. 'The sum of all these habits creates the impression of normal life, which is something many people deeply need.' That doesn't mean that everyone always follows the rules in Ukraine. Plenty of government officials, for example, have been accused and convicted of taking money they shouldn't. While waiting for the light, Yehor Riabchenko, 16, admitted that he climbed a wooden fence last year when he wasn't supposed to. But he also fell and broke his elbow. On this Tuesday, he was rushing to the hospital to get stitches removed after a recent surgery for the injury when the air-raid alarm rang out. Still, he waited for the green. Yurii Ukrainets, 71, a retired military man, also waited patiently at the corner in Kyiv for the green pedestrian light during the air-raid alert because, he said, he had no desire to throw himself under the wheels of an oncoming car. What would happen if he ran across the street dodging cars? Chaos, that's what. 'Rules are rules,' said Ukrainets, who was on his way to a government office to check on his pension. 'Imagine my grandson is out there with my daughter, and they see me crossing against a red light. 'If I don't see them, but they see me, what will they think? 'Grandpa breaks the rules — so I can too.' I don't want to set that kind of example.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Kim Barker Photographs by: Brendan Hoffman ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
