New Zealand’s Catholic Church leaders, Bishop Stephen Lowe, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, and Rev. Tom Rouse, president of the Congregational Leaders Conference, have renewed what they called a “sincere and unconditional apology” for the tragedy of abuse in their church.

However, the abused in New Zealand’s Catholic Church remain without personal apologies while their complaints result in no admissions of wrongdoing, as Lowe and Rouse disregard their own safeguarding principles and procedures.

Meanwhile, Lowe and Rouse have told the public that “words alone are not enough” and “we must demonstrate our apology by taking responsibility and through concrete actions.”

But Australian Catholic priest Kevin Dillon said: “Such efforts will be greeted with cynical dismissal by ordinary people who cannot comprehend how those who report to follow Jesus Christ continue to wreck innocent lives with such apparent abandon.”

Survivor experiences in New Zealand remain that Catholic church leaders continue to be unaccountable and not transparent today. The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry found that “Catholic Church leaders have not been accountable or transparent to their congregations and the broader community about the nature and extent of abuse and neglect by their members.”

New Zealand’s Catholic Church survivors continue to report being revictimized by Church leaders behind closed doors, especially through their official complaints process called "A Path To Healing." One recently received a letter from a lawyer instructed by Lowe and Rouse's Professional Standards and National Safeguarding Offices threatening to “discontinue the inquiry into your complaints” if the complainant did not remain silent. The letter came after the complainant raised concerns about Lowe and Rouse’s officials trying to shut down his complaint cases without completing the required investigative work.

Survivors call on all good people to hold church leaders to account. Catholic church survivors demand Catholic church leaders stop misleading the public with empty words. “Deliberately misleading the New Zealand people only keeps us all unsafe,” said Barbara Taylor, a spokeswoman for the survivors support network SNAP Aotearoa.

If there is to be any effective safeguarding in Lowe and Rouse’s response to this tragedy, as Kevin Dillon said: “Unless the victims are given top priority, all other efforts to bring credibility to the Church's response will be doomed to failure.”

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