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 [...]
Continue reading about Catholic abuse scandal: one ex-priest faces jail; another insults victims
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 [...]
A TOTAL of 85 priests are said to have abused children across all the dioceses in Ireland between 1975 and the present– and the Bishop of Raphoe, Philip Boyce has apologised for “poor judgements” in managing priests accused of “horrific acts of abuse”. Yet bizarrely, the same bishop is said in this report to have [...]
FOLLOWING our report last month regarding the disappearance of Father Laurence Soper, 80, wanted by police in connection with abuse at St Benedict’s Catholic Independent School in Ealing, west London, comes the news that monks from the neighbouring Ealing Abbey are no longer to be involved in the running of the school A report, commissioned [...]
Continue reading about St Benedict’s School in west London escapes the clutches of Catholic monks
LAST night, in a desperate last-minute search for a Hallowe’en costume, I ducked into La Rosita, an enormous toy emporium in Benidorm which, this year, displayed the largest-ever collection of ghoulish accoutrement I have ever seen. What puzzled me, though, was that priestly garb featured largely among the werewolf, witch and vampire costumes, and, for [...]
FATHER Laurence Soper, an ex-London abbot accused of sexually abusing children, is reportedly on the run from police after jumping bail. Soper, an abbot in Ealing between 1991 and 2000, was arrested last year on suspicion of sexual assault. He is now the subject of an international manhunt after jumping bail earlier this year. The [...]
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
