FROM ONE OF OUR SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENTS
Bishop Buckley,
If you go onto BBC News Scotland you will find an article entitled: ex priest awarded damages against church over childhood abuse. This article relates to former Blairs Spiritual Director, Fr Colman McGrath, who was convicted of abuse of seminarians. He was a colleague and friend of Archbishop Nolan who stayed faithful to him after conviction until his death. The name of the ex priest who has been awarded damages is not known (yet).
BBC SCOTLAND 2015
“The Catholic Church has apologised after a retired priest admitted indecently assaulting three teenage boys in Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and a boy at his parish in Langside, Glasgow.
The offences were committed between August 1972 and September 1982.
At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McGrath was told to carry out 200 hours unpaid work as part of a community payback order.
He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and told he would be supervised for three years.
In a statement, the church said: “The Archdiocese of Glasgow wishes to apologise to the victims of Father Colman McGrath.
‘Root out evil’
“When the allegations were brought to his attention, Archbishop Tartaglia took steps to ensure that the police were informed.
“These allegations led to Colman McGrath’s eventual arrest, prosecution and conviction. The Archdiocese has cooperated fully with Police Scotland throughout the investigation.”
The statement added: “We are grateful to those affected for coming forward and would encourage anyone else with concerns relating to child protection issues to contact ourselves and the police.
“There can be no place in the Church for abuse of children and we are determined to root out this evil no matter how long ago it occurred.”
The court heard that McGrath was ordained as a priest in June 1962 and between August 1963 and June 1978 taught at Blairs College, where young men studied with a view to joining the priesthood.
He was then based at St Helen’s in Langside between 1979 and 1984.
The first charge, which spanned between August 1972 and June 1973, involved a 17-year-old boy at Blairs College.
McGrath was said to have commented on the boy’s skin condition before rubbing an oil-based substance on him after ordering the teenager to take off his clothes.
This happened on two occasions and on a third, McGrath struck the semi-naked boy with a slipper as a punishment.
In March 2014, the victim contacted the Archdiocese and reported the incidents.
Victim’s assaulted
The court was told the second victim – a 16-year-old pupil at Blairs – remembers four incidents between August 1973 and February 1974.
These involved him being hit on the buttocks with a hair brush.
The boy did not join the priesthood and later spoke to a priest about the abuse when his marriage broke down.
The final victim McGrath preyed on was a 14-year-old student struggling with maths who was sent to him for tutoring in September 1980 at St Helen’s in Langside.
He was hit with a belt when there was a mistake made during teaching sessions, before later being spanked by the priest.
The boy was made to take off his trousers and pants and was bent over the priest’s knees and was hit on the bottom with his hand.
The teenager left school not long after the abuse and reported it to the Archdiocese years later.
The court was told that McGrath told police in June 2014 that he remembered the boys involved but denied the allegations.
It was said on McGrath’s behalf that he said he could not recall the incidents rather than it being outright denial.
LMcGrath, through is lawyer, made an “unreserved and full apology” to all three victims and said that they “feature regularly in the prayers of the accused”.
The new Vicar General of Motherwell, Fr Raymond Breslin, has the same domestic arrangements as the former Vicar General of Glasgow”.
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Back to our Scottish correspondent:
Docherty the DICKtator and PP of KIlsyth has been moved due to concerns and his disgusting resistance to the synod and because the people despise him and are threatening a petition if he’s not moved. She has been moved to Falkirk as the PP there,
Jemima Boyle wants some more privacy as the house in Falkirk is on the main road.
The new PP of Kilsyth is the Diocesan Chancellor, Fealy Deeley, who has fallen out with both the Archbishop Lay on my Cushion and The Vicar General and Ratzinger Protege/eye candy, Patricia Burke.
The Daisy Chain in Edinburgh is alive and kicking.
PAT SAYS
The more we hear of Scotland the worse it seems.
Most priests there are gay and actively so.
There is the occasional heterosexual in the Land of the Kilt.
The Scottish RCC is rotten.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 