Passionate advocate for ‘secret’ children

Lifestyle – Vincent Doyle was an adult when he learned that the person he had known as his godfather was actually his father. This man had been a priest and while he clearly loved his son, couldn’t acknowledge him as such. Vincent now campaigns for children born to members of the clergy and has written a book about his experiences. He tells STEPHEN CORRIGAN that things are slowly changing.

At 27 years old, Vincent Doyle found out his father had been a priest. The discovery came as a huge relief, because for years he had felt bereft for a man he had known as his godfather, and whose untimely death had devastated him in a way he neither understood nor could vocalise.

From that moment, Vincent began a journey that would lead him to the Vatican in an effort to ensure that other children of the ordained don’t have to suffer as he and so many others have done.

Vincent, who is originally from Longford but moved to Galway City in the immediate aftermath of finding out his father’s identity, has now written a book about his experiences and those of fellow children of clergy. In it, he examines what society and the Catholic Church need to do to protect and promote these children.

“The main problem for children of priests is non-acknowledgement,” explains Vincent. “If you don’t acknowledge you have a problem, how can you fix it? Children of priests are largely believed to either not exist, or exist in so small a quantity that it doesn’t merit attention.”

Shortly after he found out he was the son of a priest, Vincent founded Coping International, a charity that seeks to support the children of clergy, while also advocating better handling of such cases by the Church. Through this work he quickly found it was no small phenomenon – its website has had close to 200,000 interactions.

In fact, he believes there is anything between 10,000 and 20,000 children of the ordained around the world – the ordained meaning priests, nuns, bishops or cardinals.

“I spend my days speaking to children of priests from the Philippines to Buenos Aires – Coping works in nine languages. The common thread in all cultures and societies is the primacy of secrecy. The child over time absorbs that because it’s so present in the domestic environment and it contorts them psychologically and emotionally, because they have to conform,” says Vincent of what has been described as in ‘internalised shame’ for these children.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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