Catholic abuse

YouR report (26 June) that two Catholic charities are to launch legal objections to the chair of the inquiry into historic child abuse allegations, which could lead to delaying or even preventing exposure of the Church’s crimes

On Thursday, Cardinal Sean Brady referred in a similar inquiry in Northern Ireland to the “unspeakable crimes” of Brendan Smyth, a priest who admitted to having abused hundreds of victims and that “the scandal was kept a secret — very, very secret” for decades to protect the “good name” of the Church.

The Scottish enquiry should proceed to expose any such a cover-ups. Sadly though, the chances of doing so are limited by the narrowness of the inquiry’s remit; school and parish settings need similar investigation.

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Even under a new apparently progressive Pope, the Church continues to do all it can to suppress investigation into its appalling record of clerical child rape, just as it continues to fight tooth and nail every case and claim for compensation. It is an outrage that the Church (and Vatican) rarely if ever volunteer evidence of suspected abusers, or those who facilitated them to the police, they just hold it secretly. This compounds the abuse of the victims.

Keith Wood

National Secular

Society

Atholl Crescent

Edinburgh

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