ENGLAND
The Telegraph
February 10, 2018
By Olivia Rudgard
Clergy believe some abuse complainants are “simply out for the money”, an expert has told General Synod.
Roger Singleton, a former chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, said that while attitudes among church members had improved, some priests still treated abuse allegations with “ambivalence, even hostility,” and were “unable or unwilling to accept the need for sensible, proportionate measures” to prevent abuse.
As part of an update by church leaders on the Church of England’s preparation for a series of abuse inquiries later this year, the former chief adviser to the government on the safety of children said some clergy “minimise the impacts which physical, sexual, emotional or spiritual abuse can have on people’s lives”. In some cases, he said, they “believe that complainants are simply out for the money”.
He added that the Church needed to “grasp the nettle of dealing with clergy, readers, priests with PTO [permission to officiate] and lay leaders who persistently fail to attend training opportunities or speak disparagingly about reasonable safeguarding measures”.
The bishop of Leeds also said that relations with the police needed to be improved, and said bishops were “frustrated by having to take the rap for things which are not our responsibility”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.