SINGAPORE
Malaysia Chronicle
‘RAPE & BUGGER’ HYPOCRISY: Catholic priest molested me when I was 15 – activist
SINGAPORE – Social activist Vincent Wijeysingha has accused a Catholic priest of trying to molest him when he was a teenager, in a strongly-worded Facebook post on Monday night that attacked the Catholic Church and its stand on homosexuality.
Here is the statement he published on Facebook on June 23:
I see no grounds in Archbishop William Goh’s pronouncement on homosexuality for anything but contempt. Throughout its existence in Singapore, the church has raised its voice in support of little that Christianity has to offer the moral universe. Yet when it does, when one would expect it to affirm its teachings at Matthew 26:27 and in the first Letter to the Corinthians at Verse 13:13, it chooses one within a domain where it has no rights, given its own hideous record.
The universal church is guilty of the systematic rape and abuse of children committed to the care of a clergy ostensibly vowed to celibacy. The response of the magisterium to the thousands of adults now asking it to repair the untold damage done to them in their childhood was first to threaten and coerce into silence and, when that failed, spend billions – yes, billions – of dollars in out of court settlements. Meanwhile, it shielded paedophile clerics from the intervention of the law. In some cases involving senior prelates, it appointed them to sinecures in the Vatican, putting them outside the ambit of local police authorities.
Contrary to what has been put about that this is an isolated phenomenon limited to the United States and Ireland, this is a global phenomenon. While not as extensive as other dioceses, the local church in Singapore is not exempt. Some years ago, it was embroiled in a scandal involving a historical allegation of sexual abuse by a priest. The accused was transferred to another church where his access to children was unimpeded.
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