Bishop speaks out over child abuse shame

ONE of Scotland’s top bishops has launched an attack on his own church over a string of child abuse scandals.

William Nolan, the Bishop of Galloway, said: ‘It could be argued that the greatest obstacle to preaching the Gospel today in Scotland is the Catholic Church itself.’

The clergyman’s intervention came just days after a priest from his diocese was jailed for child sex abuse.

Father Paul Moore, 82, was sent to prison for nine years for sexually abusing three children and a student priest in crimes spanning more than 20 years. Father Moore committed the crimes at various locations in Ayrshire between 1977 and 1996.

The court heard how he abused one boy at a school, another at a leisure centre and a third on the beach at Irvine in the 1970s.

He was also found guilty of indecently assaulting a student priest in 1995.

The comments from Bishop Nolan came in a pastoral letter in which he said recent sexual abuse scandals involving clergy called into question the trust parishioners have in their priests.

He said the priority must be to help the victims: ‘The damage done is often also spiritual damage destroying their faith in the church and perhaps even their faith in God.’

Speaking to BBC Scotland News about the letter, the bishop said: ‘The sins of the Catholic Church, and people within the Catholic Church, are an obstacle to faith.

‘Something as serious as the abuse of a child, it undermines the preaching of the Gospel and causes people to question faith and the teachings of the church.’

The Catholic Church apologised to victims of child abuse last year at a hearing of the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, whose cost has risen to £13.9million from £12million in December.

Responding last night to the newly announced figure, Scottish Conservative education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The cost of this inquiry is eye-watering and we need to be reassured that there is adequate governance over what appear to be spiralling costs.’