Martin Hannan: Church needs to go to confession

NEXT year, Pope Benedict XVI will make an official state visit to Britain. It will be only the second visit by a reigning Pope following John Paul II's memorable pastoral tour in 1982. His itinerary has yet to be worked out, but will almost certainly include Scotland.

I confidently predict that there will not be the same adulation as was given to the previous Pope. Indeed, it will be a matter of supreme indifference to many people that an elderly German theologian is coming here, though I suspect the sight of Queen Elizabeth II, Defender of the Faith, greeting the Bishop of Rome on Protestant British soil will be a bigot's nightmare – on both sides.

A great many other people, including myself, will listen carefully to hear what the Pope has to say. I suspect we will listen in vain, however, for his promise to cleanse the Catholic Church in Scotland, the rest of Britain, Ireland and the world of the scandal which I consider to be at the heart of the steep decline in respect for the Church and especially its leadership.

The physical and sexual abuse of ordinary Catholics – men and boys, women and girls – by priests and nuns and bishops is the single greatest cause of recent disillusionment among the faithful. It also allows the Church's opponents, and they are legion, to correctly assume that the Church has been engaged in a long-term cover-up of tragically wicked events.

I write as a former student priest who long ago joined the ranks of those disillusioned, for though I never suffered abuse at seminary, I have seen up close the devastation that such abuse has caused, and the lifelong effects it leaves, not the least of which is loss of faith in the Church.

Do not get me wrong on this. Some of the finest men I have ever known were Catholic priests, and the vast majority of them in Scotland carry out their work in an unsung almost saintly fashion. Their daily battles against this nation's creeping Godlessness makes such men martyrs, and that's a prescription for saintliness.

I also hold no truck with those crank pseudo-organisations who try to "out" homosexuals in the clergy. They disgust me, for they have appointed themselves judges in direct contradiction of Christ's teaching – "do not judge and ye shall not be judged". (Luke chapter six, verse 37; Matthew 7:1).

But when priests and nuns carry out abuse of those in their trust, there should be only one course of action – the Church itself should report matters to the proper legal authorities, and proven abusers should not just be defrocked but excommunicated.

It is for the Church alone to sort out its mess, and particularly the bishops of Scotland who have an undistinguished history in this regard. Scotland's Catholic leaders are particularly evasive when it comes to dealing with issues such as paedophile priests. No wonder, when one of their own number, Bishop Roddy Wright – my former spiritual director at Blairs College seminary – was squiring one parishioner and had a son by another.

The late Cardinal Winning simply refused to believe paedophile allegations, until Father Desmond Lynagh – my former teacher at Blairs – was sentenced to three years in prison for the sexual abuse of 15-year-old Michael X at the seminary. I know Michael X. I know what that abuse did to him. Cardinal Keith O'Brien approved a compensation payment to Michael – but not all the lottery wins in the world could have salved Michael's pain.

I know other victims of paedophile abuse by priests who complained, and the Scottish Catholic Church's response was appalling. The evasiveness is almost fantastical. I know of at least one case where the victim's lawyer was told to sue the priest directly as he was employed by God.

It is God which the Church is failing by this craven ill-judged attitude, and this is what should happen. In England, the Church brought in Lord Nolan who drew up wise rules for dealing with abuse allegations which have declined as those responsible have been rooted out. In Ireland an exhaustive inquiry has taken place and the Church is now dealing with the abusers in its ranks. The Scottish Catholic Church must hold an inquiry into the nature and extent of abuse by the clergy. Then it must publish the results and excommunicate those responsible, and also hand over any remaining abusers to the police.

Catholic doctrines are difficult enough to follow faithfully, without them being preached by a clergy that is tainted and will remain so until such times as the truth is told, those responsible are dealt with and reparations are made to the abused.

Perhaps Pope Benedict could have a word in the ears of our Scottish and English bishops and tell them to do what the Church in Ireland has done. It will be a painful exercise but will be necessary if the Catholic Church in Scotland is to cut out this cancer and once again renew its moral and spiritual leadership.

In fact, the Pope should phone Cardinal O'Brien now and say "get this sorted out before I'm due next year", but I suspect the Pope might not make that call.

Meanwhile, the victims suffer for years, and rogues in vestments go free until they face God on Judgement Day.