This week the McLellan Report was published. For the benefit of overseas readers, it was an independent review into the child protection procedures inside the Catholic Church in Scotland. There were 46 child abuse offences committed attributable to the Church between 2006 and 2012. The Commission dealt with this very efficiently and objectively. But as the international magazine ‘The Tablet’ points out , ‘it is in effect a vote of no confidence in the Scottish bishops’ safeguarding procedures based on their performances so far.’
For the benefit of those who wish to read it, it can be found in full on the internet under ‘McLellan Commission Scotland’. We owe our thanks to the internet, of course, since it easily provides us with the full information which in a different era might have been felt too difficult or complex for the ordinary non-clerical offertory-collection paying Catholic in the pews to understand , lacking as they do the intellectual ballast of five or six years of theological education, or simply just not being Tridentine priests.
The Tablet wonders if there are ‘deeper questions’ to be answered. ‘Why were some priests tempted to abuse children, and why did they think they could get away with it ?’ it points out, The leadership of the Catholic Church in Scotland has to be accountable to its members. That journey has hardly begun.’
This is absolutely accurate. It will be an interesting journey, from which we hope our bishops will profit while there is still Catholicism in Scotland. It will involve ‘vocation’ and how the assessment of this alleged reason for becoming a Catholic priest allowed paedophiles to do so. It will also have to involve why cover-ups were so important , Scandal is an obvious first answer, but not the only one. Given Scotland’s recent catalogue of clerical sexual adventurism, it will also have to involve the matter of to whom they were so important.
And this journey- at last- will have to be made without any irrelevant protection from that old stand-by , Canon Law. Cardinal Vincent Nichols told the Commission :’Not only the culture of the Church but even aspects of Canon Law may have led to the protection of priests.’
It would be nice if it were revealed also how bishops got the way they are. We think that’s inevitable. And we will certainly provide what observations we can about that.
Signs of a new perception of what the Church should be locally- or everywhere else -in 2015 ? Come on- pull yourself together !
Despite the Pope’s suggestions, despite the views of ten bishops from England and Wales, despite the observations of a number of very respectable websites, it was announced that the Archdiocese of Glasgow will begin a Vocations Drive for the Tridentine priesthood in October this year.
And so it goes on. Or can it ?