Church must recognise priests' children - ex-Vatican staffer

A woman who quit a top Vatican job in protest at its handling of child sex abuse cases, says the Catholic Church must front up to the new issue of the children of priests. This comes after an Auckland woman spoke up, telling RNZ she is asking the Church to acknowledge in writing that she is the daughter of a priest. The woman, who RNZ has agreed not to name, says her father was a wonderful man who loved her mother but he was forced to carry a 'terrible burden' of secrecy for decades. Until last year the Vatican had avoided publicly addressing the centuries-old issue of priests fathering children. Marie Collins helped change that. She was on the Vatican's commission for safeguarding children for three years.