As the Roman Catholic church hosts a historic summit on sexual abuse, new Canadian guidelines are being used as a possible roadmap for reformation.
on Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse include tougher background checks, compassion for victims and abandoning confidentiality clauses in settlements with victims.
Ron Fabbro, a bishop in London, Ont., spent years working on the 69 recommendations that were published last year and which are being considered at the summit underway at the Vatican.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 very important for them to hear that we acknowledge that there have been failures,鈥� Fabbro tells 麻豆传媒.
Fabrro says the most difficult part of the scandal has been knowing that those who suffered the abuse have 鈥渓ost their trust in the church.鈥�
He鈥檚 hopeful the church can change, but others have lost hope. Some were disappointed that Pope Francis did not attend a meeting with survivors on Wednesday, and has not apologized for the church鈥檚 role in abuse of Indigenous people at Canadian residential schools.
Rod MacLeod is one of those still waiting for the church to change.
In 2015, MacLeod won a $2.6 million settlement for the abuse he suffered at the hands of a Sudbury, Ont., priest and high school gym teacher in the 1960s. William Marshall was found guilty of abusing 17 people in 2011. He died in 2014.
鈥淎fter gym, you'd go to the showers and he would grab you and pull you into his office where he had all these venetian blinds that he had kept closed all the time,鈥� MacLeod recalls.
The church has paid only $500,000 of MacLeod鈥檚 settlement. It is appealing the rest.
MacLeod said he believes the church continues to ignore a core issue that leads to abuse. 鈥淚 believe that the root of the problem is celibacy,鈥� he told 麻豆传媒.
MacLeod鈥檚 lawyer, Robert Talach, said the $2.6 million settlement 鈥� the highest of its kind in Canada 鈥� isn鈥檛 true justice.
鈥淭rue justice would be putting him in a time machine, taking him back to when he was a child, and telling him to avoid that priest,鈥� he said.
