Alessandro Gisotti, a Vatican spokesman, says a 2017 document synthesised a decade's worth of procedures and that its "fundamental principle" was the "protection of the child".

The document is for internal use only.

Gisotti explains the rules say a priest who fathered a child would be requested to leave the priesthood. After this the priest would be expected to "assume his responsibility as a parent, dedicating himself exclusively to the child".

However, Monsignor Andrea Ripa, who is the under-secretary in the Congregation for the Clergy which oversees more than 400,000 priests, says "it is impossible to impose" the dismissal of the priest.

Instead, leaving the priesthood "can only be asked" for by the priest.

Having said that, Ripa added that the failure to ask to be relieved of priestly obligations was reason for the church to take action: "If you don't ask, you will be dismissed."

He added the guidelines are more of a formality than an order.

The tradition of celibacy among Roman Catholic clergy was broadly codified in the 12th century, but not necessarily adhered to, even in the highest places.

Rodrigo Borgia, while a priest, had four children with his mistress before he became Pope Alexander VI, an excess that helped spur Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation.

Luther wrote mockingly that the pope had as much command over celibacy as "the natural movement of the bowels."

The number of children born to priests is unknown although one support group, Coping International, has 50,000 users in 175 countries.

Source

• New York Times
• The Guardian
• CNN
• Image: Epic Pew

The bishops' spokesperson, Amanda Gregan, responding to questions from RNZ, said the bishops had "read with interest the Irish Bishops' guidelines concerning children of priests".

However, "They will continue to follow their own pastoral practices in regard to any encounter that may arise."

These practices would be "informed" by the Irish principles and others, and New Zealand law.

The example of Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn, who worked for a long time with the woman he at last acknowledged last month, was an example of how the Church could respond, she said.

"Each case is different and, as such, should be treated sensitively and with respect."

RNZ reported that The Vatican recently asked its Commission for Safeguarding Minors to work on its own set of guidelines.

Gregan said the New Zealand bishops were unaware that was happening and it was not discussed at their recent meeting.

Coping International's founder Vincent Doyle said it was good that New Zealand bishops were trying to come to terms with the concept, but they lacked the experience to handle it.

"This issue brings with it particular nuances and psychologies uncommon to other scenarios that [the bishops] may have encountered, such as genealogical bewilderment syndrome ... or other anxieties that priests' children may experience," he said.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference statement

"The bishops firmly believe that the rights and sensitivities of the child and the mother should be respected and that being the father of a child carries with it particular responsibilities.

"As already explained to RNZ, this is a pastoral situation where the bishops believe a listening ear and heart are vital.

"The bishops are also conscious New Zealand has carefully crafted civic guidelines and policies concerning a child's right to know his or her natural parents. They are guided also by this praxis.

"The bishops read with interest the Irish bishops' guidelines concerning children of priests. They will continue to follow their own pastoral practices in regard to any encounter that may arise."

Source

• RNZ
• Image: ncronline.org

But he says priests' children have the right to know who their parents are.

He was speaking to RNZ about Coping International, a website that offers support to the children of clergy.

There are some New Zealanders among 13,500 people worldwide who have been in touch the website's founder, Vincent Doyle, since he started the website in late 2014.

"We've been contacted by a number of people in New Zealand - one family where there's more than one child to the same priest, to the same woman," Doyle said.

"But they're going to be making moves to that particular diocese in the future and they'll be contacting the bishop concerned."

The response to the website has prompted the Vatican to acknowledge the issue, and last month it began working on guidelines as to how it should respond.

Kilgallon, who is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, personally briefed the Pope about the issue last month.

He said the expectation would be that the [priest] should go and be a father to his child.

Kilgallon thought that secrecy surrounding the issue more often comes from family or relatives or friends - the community around you. Not the Pope, the Vatican, the bishop, especially in today's society in a country like New Zealand.

"They must, must get this right. This is the first time in history the church has really done this ... they can't just issue some guidelines... if they mess this up they will traumatise thousands of people."

Kilgallon acknowledged there might be complications, such as a priest's financial obligations to a child, or the need for DNA paternity testing, but these were purely secondary to the primary responsibility of the priest.

"We've acknowledged ... children have rights and one of those rights is to know their parents."

"The difficulty occurs when a child is born in a situation where the father is a priest who's not supposed to be in a relationship and fathering children. This can often lead to the relationship being kept secret, the identity of the father being denied to the child."

Source

• RNZ
• Image: The Christian Post

Irish-based Coping International was assured by the bishops that this support would be forthcoming.

The bishops made this decision at their autumn meeting in October last year.

The therapy would be provided through the church-sponsored "Towards Healing" service.

The founder of Coping International said the "Irish Catholic bishops have been providing counselling services ‘ad hoc' through Towards Healing since 2011 to children of Irish Catholic priests and to their mothers since 2013".

He told The Tablet that the Irish bishops' decision is believed to be "the first of its kind in the Church".

Coping International maintains contact with more than 30 children of priests and also some priests.

It works "primarily (at this point) with Irish clientele", but includes the Philippines, Africa and South America, where Irish priests work as missionary priests.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin reportedly stated: "I pray that Coping will be able to find ways which will bring the children of priests and their natural parents together for the benefit of both."

Blogging for The Tablet, David Weber, founder of Human Rights for Children of Priests, said thousands of people are affected by this issue worldwide.

Mr Weber wrote that while "a child of a diocesan parish priest might sometimes have secret contact with his or her father . . . in my experience, the payment of child support is attached to a confidentiality agreement that results in immense pressure on the child not to tell anyone who the father is".

He pointed to the 2014 report on the Vatican's compliance with the UN convention of the right of the child on this matter.

Mr Weber said a UN committee's report was "almost revolutionary" in recommending that "the Vatican find out who [the children of priests] are, [and] take all necessary measures to ensure that the rights of those children to know and to be cared for by their fathers is respected".

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Image: Fashions Cloud