SCOTLAND
Scotsman
By STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on Monday 11 March 2013
THE Catholic Church in Scotland should open its “secret” files and publish an audit of abusive priests, according to the former head of the Church’s working party on child protection.
Alan Draper, who compiled a report on 22 “problem priests” as long ago as 1995, criticised the Church for paying lip service and failing to act on a second damning report in 2004, which said certain priests were not adequately monitored and “unacceptable levels of risk to children may have been and could remain present”.
The second, 27-page report was written by May Dunsmuir, then director of child protection for the Catholic Church, and has been seen by The Scotsman. It criticised Scottish bishops for failing to provide proper training, adequate supervision of problem priests and for organising “no national or diocesan collation and dissemination of child protection statistical information and analysis”.
The report, which was sent to Archbishop Keith O’Brien, then president of the Bishops’ Conference, also criticised existing policy as “silent on certain matters, eg, how to respond to allegations involving clergy or a bishop”.
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