The Catholic Church in Scotland has failed to provide “compassionate and pastoral” support on issues of sexuality, the head of its media office has said.
In a Radio Scotland interview, Peter Kearney said: “If there’s an area where the Church hasn’t been seen — frankly because it’s not present — it’s in that area of compassionate, pastoral outreach to people who are struggling with same-sex attraction, or they’re confused about it and would love the chance to talk to someone in a compassionate, pastoral context.
“The truth of it is that that level of support really isn’t there.
“If you’ve got a drug or alcohol problem, or homelessness, then we seem to be able to step in and offer you support, help and options. But when it comes to human sexuality, it just isn’t there at the moment. And that’s unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, an academic who compiled a report for the Catholic Church in Scotland in the mid-1990s, dealing with how to deal with sexual abuse, says it was not acted upon in a decisive or concerted way.
Alan Draper, an ethics lecturer at Dundee University, said he asked the eight Catholic bishops in Scotland how much they knew about sexual abuse. Their replies referred to 20 allegations of child abuse by priests.
Mr Draper said he wanted independent experts to investigate further, but the bishops disagreed.
He told the BBC: “I was very concerned about their unwillingness to actually expose individual priests who were leaving double lives.
“They were very reluctant to do that, and I felt that was totally inappropriate. It’s not what your sexuality is, it’s how you’re managing your sexuality.
“Certainly there’s strong evidence to say some of the priests were out of control sexually, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual.
“The file should be made open to an independent group, preferably chaired by a judge.”
A statement from the Church said Mr Draper was involved “at an early stage in the development of policies and procedures but was replaced when others with greater competence were engaged”.
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Image: Scottish Catholic Observer