Church has yet to uphold promises over abuse scandals

Catholic Church in Scotland has vowed to change, but actions speak louder than words, writes Martyn Mclaughlin

Nearly five years have passed since the Catholic Church in Scotland took the first tentative steps on a journey many hoped would close the yawning gulf between its public statements and private deeds when it came to abuse.

In November 2013, the Scottish Catholic Bishops asked the Very Reverend Dr Andrew Mclellan, a former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to carry out an external review of safeguarding protocols and procedures.

The subsequent report, published in August 2015, became known as the Mclellan Commission. Its recommendations were plentiful but two were key. Firstly, it stated that “support for survivors of abuse must be an absolute priority”; secondly, it emphasised that “justice must be done and justice must be seen to be done for those who have been abused and for those against whom allegations of abuse are made”.

In the aftermath, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, Scotland’s most senior Catholic, said the church would accept the recommendations in full and offered a “profound apology to all those who have been harmed and who have suffered in any way as a result of actions by anyone within the Catholic Church”.

Speaking during mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow, he added that the church’s response to survivors had often been “slow, unsympathetic or uncaring”, and he pledged that it would now “reach out” to survivors.

Fine words, yet it took until April this year for the church to respond to the Mclellan Commission’s recommendations with the publication of In God’s Image, a safeguarding manual designed to uphold the highest standards of care and protection.

A spokesman for the church said the publication brought to a close the two-year long period of implementing Dr Mclellan’s recommendations. “Everything requested in the report has now been completed,” he said.

Come the end of September, at the beginning of their Ad Limina visit to Rome, Scotland’s eight Catholic Bishops had a private audience with Pope Francis, during which Archbishop Tartaglia presented him with a copy of the 88-page tome. The Vatican has not commented on whether the Holy Father has a wonky kitchen table, but in the absence of any shoogly legs, it is hard to see how the publication will serve any kind of practical purpose.

To all extents and purposes, the document is a framework of policies, protocols, and procedures. But it can – and must – offer much more than that. It should be a declaration of compassion and empathy towards those whose trust and faith was preyed upon.

The first real test of it, and the church, came last week with the first interim report by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), which determined that children in two Catholic residential homes were systematically abused and dehumanised.

The inquiry heard of a litany of graphic physical and sexual suffering. Lady Smith, the commission’s chair, upheld allegations by residents that they were sexually abused by priests, a trainee priest, nuns and lay members of staff.

She heard how Bernard Traynor, who was ordained as a priest in 1977, had sexually abused several boys transferred from Smyllum Park in Lanark to a home in Newcastle between 1970 and 1979. The church