Bishop Apologises over Claims of Decades of Abuse at Catholic Boarding School

By Auslan Cramb
The Guardian
August 4, 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10221629/Bishop-apologises-over-claims-of-decades-of-abuse-at-Catholic-boarding-school.html

The Bishop of Aberdeen said he wanted to be with parishioners in Fort Augustus in the wake of the allegations

The Rt Rev Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, expressed his “horror and shame” during a mass at Fort Augustus and said abuse by monks at the former Fort Augustus Abbey School was a terrible tale of broken trust and integrity.

His statement followed a television documentary that found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at the Highland school, and its prep school in East Lothian.

The Benedictine order that ran the schools, has already apologised, but Bishop Gilbert's address was the first time a senior cleric had spoken publicly about abuse at the abbey school, which closed in 1998.

He said he wanted to be with parishioners in Fort Augustus in the wake of the allegations.

He told the congregation: "It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former abbey school a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.

"I know that Abbot Richard Yeo (of the English Benedictine Congregation) has offered an apology to those who have suffered such abuse and I join him in that.

"We are anxious that there be a thorough police investigation into all this. And, that all that can be done should be done for the victims. All of us must surely pray for those who have suffered."

Alleged victims who attended the school told a BBC Scotland programme they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

Five men claimed they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp, the East Lothian prep school, and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

Fr Duggan died in 2004, but some abuse claims relate to men who are still alive and Police Scotland has confirmed they it is investigating the allegations.

The documentary also contained allegations that the abbey was used as a "dumping ground" for problem clergy who had confessed to abusing children.

Bishop Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, said before the service yesterday that he wanted to speak to parishioners in Fort Augustus to “say sorry for the hurt caused to the victims”.

He added: “We are truly distressed to have learned that these things have happened and I want to articulate that for the parishioners there.

“Some of the older ones will remember that community and many of them will have positive memories of it and the work of the monks, but sadly there appear to have been these terrible breaches of right conduct."

The school was run by Catholic Benedictine monks and the Rt Rev Dom Richard Yeo, abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation, has apologised for "any abuse that may have been committed at Fort Augustus”.

It has also emerged that the church is planning to publish annual audits dealing with abuse allegations against Scottish clergy.