Keine Ahnung wie wir das betiteln
There are tens of thousands of people worldwide, whose father was a catholic priest or a member of a catholic order at the time of their birth. According to the law, all children possess the same rights, independent of the status of their parents. This applies for the right to have contact with one’s father, the right to child support and the right to inherit. In spite of that, it is being made impossible to the daugthers and sons of catholic priests (that either were in office at the time of the childs birth, or still are) to exercise these rights. The catholic church almost always prevents contact between the father and his family, or only tolerates it when it is kept secret. The church monopolizes negotiations about child support (and keeps the father out of them) and then attaches undue conditions to the payment of it (“hush money”). It almost always also withholds the inheritance. This is only possible though, because goverments tolerate the existence of this parallel structure, then never examine it, and thereby enable the catholic church to consider the lives and rights of the families of priests as its own affair which it deals with autonomously.
The petition below intends to give voice and weight to the demand, that the catholic church, with respect to the children of its priests and members of orders, respect the United Nations declaration of the 20th of November 1959, concerning the rights of the child, and obey all the laws existing in countries under the rule of law. Any attempt to prevent the contact between the child and the father, to prevent the payment of child support, to thwart the rights of the child to inherit, or to attach any undue conditions to the exercise of any of these rigths, is not compatible with universal human rights or the existing laws. The petition also intends to send a signal to goverments and holders of political office, and demands from them that they consequently examine, and call for the compliance with those laws by the church.
Political activities
On occasion of the pope’s visit to the United Kingdom in 2010, we had sent this "open letter" to the then British Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke. In the letter we appeal to Mr. Clarke to use his office to work towards an end of the discrimination of children of priests, and to uphold the law against the church.