Photo: Baroness Hollins and colleagues working on the Vatican Abuse Commission
The Catholic Union’s annual Craigmyle Lecture was delivered on 28 November by Baroness Hollins of Wimbledon and Grenoside. Her talk was focused on the issue of sexual abuse within the Church, reflecting on years of experience directed towards preventing and combatting the issue.
Shelia Hollins is a renowned psychiatrist and former President of the BMA who now sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords. A lifelong Catholic, she has spent years fighting for and upholding Catholic values in government, recently voting against attempts to introduce assisted suicide. Since 2010, she has devoted vast amounts of her time to the issue of clerical abuse and in 2014 was appointed by Pope Francis as a founding member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM). She maintains a position of unique experience on not only how this issue has affected Vatican policy, but also on the lasting effects abuse can have on the physical, mental and spiritual health of victims.
