IN THE same week that that Alexander Bede Walsh – a former Roman Catholic priest from Staffordshire – was warned that he faces jail after being convicted of 21 counts of child abuse, retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan caused outrage by retracting an apology he made in 2002 to victims of sexual abuse carried [...]
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JOHN Downie, a director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), has been slammed by the Catholic Church for saying that one of the “key causes” of sectarianism in Scotland was the existence of denominational education. According to this report, he added that “getting rid of faith schools” would help eradicate the blight of [...]
Continue reading about Catholic fury erupts in Scotland over charity director’s sectarianism remarks
FIRST off, let me make it absolutely clear – to BarrieJohn in particular – that I did not choose to blog this sorry saga because a key player in it has a funny name: Dr Hazel Chowcat. Chowcat is a magistrate in Yorkshire, and according to this report, she accepted the defence of a 73-year-old [...]
Continue reading about Catholic boozehound in puppy club prang
A ROMAN Catholic monk was warned about his behaviour after molesting a 12-year-old boy at the school at which he was teaching – but instead of being reported to the police he was simply prevented from teaching younger children by the Benedictine abbot of the monastery to which the school was attached. This shocking fact [...]
JOURNALISTS and police were roughed up, stones were thrown and refuse bins set alight in the Israeli town of Beth Shemeth yesterday when hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men got stroppy in defence of rules they have imposed to segregate their womenfolk – or chattels as they tend to regard them. Zealots in the town, according [...]
Continue reading about ‘Tis the season to be jolly … violent!
I HAVE been deluged by emails over the last day or so by readers enraged over ITV’s cowardly decision to cut Aussie comedian Tim Minchin out of the Jonathan Ross Show. ITV network’s director of television Peter Fincham apparently got cold feet over a song Minchin penned for the show in which he compared Jesus [...]
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
