By: Shauna Sigren on September 15, 2017

It is a necessity for children to be shown love and support. Science shows, every 3 months children lose one month of growth when in an institution. When children are adopted or fostered from such institutions they begin to grow normally once again. If someone were to ask you if you needed your parents to become the person you are today, the answer is yes. Many children across the world are hidden and treated as an inconvenience. These children are children of Priests.

According to the Boston Globe, more that 400,000 priests worldwide have had unplanned pregnancies. Priests have been forbidden to have intercourse or be in a relationship by the church for more than 900 years. The Boston Globe spoke with a 36 year old woman from Toronto named Chiara Villar. She was the daughter of a priest and she says that, “All I ever wanted was for him to take me out for icecream and say, ‘I’m so proud of my daughter.’” These children lack the parent child bond and feel they are ashamed of. Many of these children felt it must have been there fault they were being hidden and  lied about. Often times these children can’t help “feeling like a mistake.”

To make matters worse, there seem to be no set rules for what bishops must do when a priest is father to a child. They are not required to pay any kind of child support. And often the only time child support is provided is when it  is paid in exchange for keeping the child a secret. After reading an article on the subject and doing my own research, it appears that, “The church likewise makes no formal provision for the support – emotional and financial – of the mothers involved, or their children, allowing priests who father children to treat their secret offspring as a crisis to be managed rather than a life to be nurtured,”(The Boston Globe). This is an issue that has yet to be resolved.

All across the world, children of priests are treated as a secret. Children victim to this position are in large numbers and they still do not have the help they need. Many children are disappointed in just for existing and it’s very unhealthy for them to deal with. Many argue this is emotional abuse for children. Although many people don’t find out until they are older, the facts can still be psychologically damaging to an individual of any age. This has been happening for hundreds of years but is still happening present day. This article was written to shed more light on this problem that’s been hidden from the public. Many people are unaware of the issue and the curtain has yet to be drawn back on the matter.