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Church of Scotland urged to apologize for abuse

Tuesday, 18 August 2015 12:05 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 18 August 2015 3:42 PM ]

The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has been hit by a series of scandals. (Photo by the Guardian)

A commission probing into sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has asked it to make a public apology over the sex abuse scandal within the church.

"An apology must be made in a way that is unmistakeable and unequivocal," the commission said in its report.

Tasked with handling allegations of report, the commission was formed following a series of scandals that hit the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland

The commission, which was led by Rev Andrew McLellan, has made eight recommendations, including calling for support for survivors of abuse to be an "absolute priority".

“Nothing in our independent report is more important than our first recommendation: that support for the survivors of abuse must be an absolute priority for the Catholic Church in Scotland,” McLellan said at a press conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

A London-based political commentator believes that a public apology is not enough and the predators should be subject to criminal prosecution.

“There should much stronger action against them… They should be subject to criminal prosecution after kind of criminal act and criminal abuse,” Chris Bambery told Press TV’s UK Desk on Tuesday.

Bambery also pointed to the cover-up culture within the church and said the scandal is

“The Catholic Church has a long history of turning blind eye to the criminals…It’s a huge ongoing scandal so that the head of the Catholic Church of Scotland had to stand down and go into exile,” he added.

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