SCOTLAND
The National
SCOTLAND’S bishops have asked former Labour minister Helen Liddell to take charge of making the Catholic Church a “safe place for all”.
Liddell will chair the independent review group responsible for implementing the recommendations of Dr Andrew McLellan’s report into the church’s failures over child protection. The former MP for Airdrie and Shotts promised the group would be “transparent and fearless”.
Back in 2013, the bishops had McLellan, a former Chief Moderator at the Kirk, chair a review and make “recommendations for improvement that will assist the Church in being a safe place for all”.
McLellan’s report, which was published last year, called for the Catholic Church to make an immediate apology to survivors and to rewrite all its safeguarding policies and open itself up to external scrutiny.
Liddell’s appointment comes just weeks after McLellan accused the bishops of ignoring his report.
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