UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Telegraph
EAST Lancashire priests have said that there will be no ‘hiding place’ for the ‘wicked and wrong’ abusers of children in the Catholic Church.
Members of the clergy spoke out after Pope Francis insisted the church would ‘not take one step backward’ in tackling the problem, which has blighted the faith in recent years.
The move, which could now open the floodgates for hundreds of compensation claims by victims, has been supported across the area, with one priest saying the Pope’s strong stance is right even if it does bankrupt the Catholic hierarchy.
Several former priests and teachers at the Jesuit-run Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley were investigated over sex abuse allegations in the late 90s Father James Chaning-Pearce, who taught maths and physics there, was convicted of molesting four boys and jailed for five years in 1997.
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