SCOTLAND
Christian Daily
January 10, 2018
By Lorraine Caballero
The Catholic Church in Scotland has drawn criticism for its failure to meet with victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse more than two years after the head of the Scottish bishops’ conference offered a public apology over the issue.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland’s former moderator, Rev. Andrew McLellan, said he was “disappointed” by how long it was taking the bishops to meet with sex abuse victims and survivors. He said although the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, issued a very good apology, the intervention that came after that was not enough, Crux relayed.
“After Archbishop Tartaglia’s public apology, which he did so well, there was a long hard silence, and I was very disappointed in terms of the progress the bishops were making,” Rev. McLellan told Scottish newspaper Sunday Herald.
McLellan previously chaired a commission which examined the issue of child protection in the local Catholic Church. In the group’s report, which was published in 2015, he outlined eight policy recommendations that included prioritizing support for the abuse survivors and the revision of the “Awareness and Safety” manual on preventing abuse, which was introduced in 2007.
McLellan also highlighted the importance of serving justice to both the victim of abuse and the perpetrators. He added that there must be regular training on safeguarding against clerical abuse.
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