The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, on Sunday issued an apology for the abuse allegedly suffered by young boys at a Scottish boarding school over 30 years.
“It is a most bitter, and distressing and shameful thing that in this former Abbey school there were a small number of baptised, consecrated, ordained Christian men, who physically or sexually abused those in their charge,” the bishop said during a visit to the Fort Augustus Abbey School.
The bishop said he was “anxious that there be a thorough police investigation”.
Five men earlier came forward to say they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian Benedictine monk who taught at Fort Augustus and Carlekemp, a feeder school in East Lothian, between 1953 and 1974.
The Catholic Church initially said it was up to the Benedictine monks who ran the order to deal with the allegations.
Father Aidan Duggan is now dead.
The other, Father Denis Chrysostom Alexander, has been stripped of his priestly duties pending an investigation into the claims.
The UK’s highest Benedictine monk, Dom Richard Yeo, has also apologised for the abuse.
Sources
Image: BBC