Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) cites numerous examples of clerics seemingly not being subjected to French law for failing to report suspected clerical abuse of minors, as has been required since 2000. He argues that fundamental changes are needed for victims Read more…
Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of IAFT and President of the National Secular Society (UK) considers the contradictions of the French courts’ final ruling on Cardinal Barbarin’s failure to report suspected clerical abuse of minors and its troubling consequences France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled on 14 April that Read more…
by Keith Porteous Wood President of the National Secular Society (NSS) and spoke-person of the International Association of Freethought Fri, 05 Feb 2021 The misery which women and children faced for decades highlights the damage that can be done when states leave religious authority unchecked, says NSS president Keith Porteous Read more…
By Keith Porteous Wood, spokesperson of l’Association Internationale de la Libre Pensée, and president of the National Secular Society (of the United Kingdom) December 2020 Last month, the Pope’s former Ambassador to France, ex-Papal Nuncio Luigi Ventura, was tried for sexually assaulting five young men, including a Paris City Hall Read more…
A BLOG BY KEITH PORTEOUS WOOD* Do French clerics carry “get out of jail free” cards? In March, a most egregious infraction of secularism in France passed almost unnoticed. Former priest Bernard Preynat was not imprisoned despite having been found guilty of the sexual violence against minors on a huge Read more…
updated of the article: Declaration on the Liberation of Cardinal G Pell 2020 April 8. Australia’s top court has overturned the conviction of the Vatican’s former treasurer for sexually assaulting two boys. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s plain sailing from here for him, says Keith Porteous Wood. Cardinal George Read more…
Cardinal George Pell has been released by Australia’s highest court after unanimously quashing his conviction for sexual assault of two boys twenty years ago at a Cathedral. He was serving a six year sentence. The jury had unanimously believed his accuser, one of the boys. The prosecuting QC said of Read more…
On September 18th 2019, National Secular Society President Keith Porteous Wood, IAFT spokeperson, urged the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to exert pressure on the Vatican to submit long-overdue reports outlining its response to child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. (more…)
The Vatican can no longer do anything about it: the scandal can no longer be suppressed, the witnesses are talking, the wall of silence is definitely broken. The Catholic Church is responsible for thousands of crimes, rapes, harassment, physical and mental torture of thousands of children, not only by not denouncing those who commit them, but by protecting them and most often leaving them in a position to commit them again. That is why Libre Pensée requires that all archives concerning these cases be made public and that human justice be respected. (more…)
Church Crimes and paedophilia: The Church must be accountable to the Justice of men!
A new week, A new Cardinal condemned. On 7th March, the highest official of the Catholic Church in France, the Archbishop of Lyon Philippe Barbarin, was condemned for not reporting the repeated sexual abuses committed by priests on 70 minors. Philippe Barbarin was sentenced to six months in prison with a suspended sentence. He will appeal, but nevertheless indicated his resignation to the pope. (more…)