MailOnline (dailymail.co.uk)
By Rob Cooper
Outburst: Baroness Scotland said parishioners should make friends with Roman Catholic priests
Churchgoers should take priests out for a glass of wine or to football matches so they aren’t tempted to become paedophiles, Baroness Scotland has said in an astonishing outburst.
The former Labour minister said that many priests have a ‘fairly lonely existence’ and need to mix more with their parishioners on a social basis.
The child protection expert, claimed that church leaders end up becoming abusers because they are ‘isolated’, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Baroness Scotland who is the chairman of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission set-up to handle abuse claims, said paedophilia within the church should not be a taboo subject.
Her outburst came as official figures showed there was a three-fold rise in historic child abuse complaints in the Catholic church last year.
She told the Daily Telegraph: ‘One of the things that came out very strongly from the research is that those who abuse have often seen themselves as being very lonely, isolated and unsupported emotionally.
She added: ‘The priests and religious people are people too – they need friendship and comfort and someone to have a glass of wine with and watch the football or whatever it is. That is something that people sometimes forget.’
A surge in historic child sex abuse complaints coincided with Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to Britain last September.
Sex abuse claims: A surge in complaints coincided with the Pope’s visit to Britain last September. Here he is pictured at St Mary’s College, Twickenham
Allegations of sex abuse from the 1950s, 60s and 70s rose from20 in 2009 to 63 last year. Publicity surrounding the papal visit is thought to have led to the surge in complaints.
The types of abuse alleged included sexual, physical and emotional, as well as four allegations of child-abuse images – two relating to parishioners, one to a priest and one to a volunteer.
In total, there were 83 sex abuse claims relating to 103 victims and 92 alleged abusers in 2010, according to the annual report of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission report.
The allegations from last year have so far resulted in two jail sentences, two court hearings and one police caution or warning.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales underwent sweeping reforms to its child protection procedures following intense criticism about the way it handled abuse scandals in the past.
The Nolan report in 2001, ordered by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, former leader of Catholics in England and Wales, made a series of recommendations aimed at stamping out paedophile activity in the church.
Between 1995 and 1999, 21 of the 5,600 Catholic priests in England and Wales were convicted of offences against children.
Of all the comments that have ever come in anywhere about the subject of abuse by Priests, this has to be the most outrageous by a country mile !! The Baroness must have been into the gins before she decided to offer this bit of nonsense.
Then you just have to look and see what posts she has occupied or currently holds to understand the ludacrisy that is part of the understanding by the elected class.
Is it any wonder that both England and Ireland are in terrible financial difficulty.
This one should be locked up for her own protection.
Ahhh the poor priest are lonely and isolated… find same aged friends and leave children alone. Unbelivable that the baroness speaks not a word about the survivor children and the lifelong trauma this crime has had on them and thier intimate relationships. I feel survivors would be feeling lonely, isolated and much in need of care, compassion and understanding. They blame the victim and support the criminals.
Such nonsense. As though those who are lonely will sexually abuse children to alleviate their loneliness.
The Baroness obviously does not know of the countless children who were molested precisely because their parents not only befriended their parish priest, but turned themselves inside out to make him feel a part of their family. That includes football games, and the odd glass of wine, and many a diner, and a few vacations, and, oh yes, bedtime stories for the children.
She may well have clumsily observed a causal correlation between “lonely priests” and “pedophiles” – she just very stupidly has trouble distinguishing the direction of the causal link! She probably thinks people use out houses to poop in because out houses stink like poop.
Larry, what about your blasphemy? Are you still too cowardly to face up to it? The above is only horse-feathers !
She’s kidding, right?
Sadly, no! She is stupidly serious.
Hrrrrmmmmm.
And what does she suggest for the victims of the priests?
Maybe a good game of solitaire to take our minds off things?
I think victims would not even be an after-thought in her world of one !