Justice on this earth

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Nearly one full year ago (12 March ’17) I posted a blog regarding a Father Paul Moore, a predatory Scottish priest who was finally being brought to trial  :  The wheels of justice grind slowly.  The then 80-year-old priest was facing charges related to the “historic” sexual abuse of young boys. He is one of priests profiled in the following BBC Scotland documentary Sins of Our Fathers:

It is well worth reviewing.

Anyway, as far as Father Paul Moore and justice is concerned,  the good news is that justice on this earth has finally been done:

15 March 2018:  “Priest convicted 20 years after first confessing” & related articles

At the heart of this particular sad saga of cover-up was the story of Father Patrick Lawson, a priest who, as a seminarian had both been preyed upon by Moore and discovered that Moore had sexually abused young boys, and who, as a priest, had, it seemed, been persecuted and rebuffed for his tireless attempts to have Moore dealt with booted from the priesthood.

There are Canadian connections to this sorry scandal.  Two

(1) Southdown

Note too that Father Moore was quietly shipped off across the Atlantic ocean to Canada’s ‘Catholic” “treatment” facility,  Southdown.  (The Southdown link is broken.  I will fix it today)

(2)  Fort Augustine Abbey

For Augustine Abbey was, until 1998,  a Benedictine monastery situated on a beautiful plot of land at the tip of Loch Ness, Scotland.  Also on site and operated by the monks was the  a boy’s boarding school,  Fort Augustine Abbey school.   The school closed its doors around 1993.

Sometime after his stint in Southdown Father Moore landed at the abbey.  By then the school had closed, but, it was before 1998 and  the monastery was still active.  He remained at the abbey until its closure.

The Canadian connection?   Well, Fort Augustus Abbey School is the alma mater  of  Father Robert MacKenzie , an alleged molester and former Benedictine priest from Scotland now incardinated as a diocesan priest with the Archdiocese of Regina, Saskatchewan.  MacKenzie  was first a pupil and, later, after his ordination as a Benedictine priest, a teacher at the school.(MacKenzie, as we understand it, may eventually be extradited to his native land to face sex charges related to his years as a Benedictine priest in Scotland.)

MacKenzie would have been gone by the time Father Moore arrived at the abbey, but, interesting that the monastery was a chosen as a site to recycle Moore after his time in Southdown.

As I said nearly a year ago,  in light of our recent interest in Father MacKenzie it’s interesting to see that this Father Moore who was protected for countless years by Church officials in Scotland, and whom the police failed to charge for those countless years,  spent time in Canada at Southdown, and time at the the Abbey.

And, as I also said nearly a year ago, sad to say, the wheels of justice seem to grind as slowly in Scotland as they often do in Canada.  Thankfully in this case Father Paul Moore  was finally obliged to face his accusers in a court of law.  Thankfully, Father Lawson never gave up!  And, thankfully Father Moore has been convicted.

Unfortunately I have no news on the status of the extradition proceedings against Father Robert MacKenzie.  All is quiet.

Enough for now,

Sylvia

 

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