Denounce crimes of priests
Sexual Exploitation of Children by Religious Authorities in Australia
Babu Gogineni (IAFT spokesperson) interviews (2019) two Australians who were sexually abused by religious in their childhood
Denounce crimes of priests
Interview with Keith Porteous Wood on the abuses committed by Catholic religious around the world
Libre Pensée Française: Hello Keith. Could you introduce yourself? KPW : The National Secular Society was founded in 1866 and has always been internationally, as well as nationally, focussed. I became its CEO in 1996 and have been its President since retiring five years ago. We have six staff, led Read more…
Denounce crimes of priests
The Catholic Church and the Vichy Regime
In May 1942, 80 years ago, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in France sent a leaflet to the entire population about World War II. The leaflet which follows, unearthed by International Association of Freethinkers’ spokesperson Keith Porteous Wood, commanded allegiance to Marshall Pétain, a puppet of Hitler and the Nazis. Read more…
Denounce crimes of priests
The French Bishops: will the compensation be sufficient, and is it the price of silence?
By Keith Porteous WOOD* The French bishops have announced, belatedly, that the Church will bear compensation for victims of clerical sexual abuse<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse-victims-b1954021.html>, and that it will be proportionate, as the French Commission CIASE recommended. It estimated that at least a third of a million minors were victims of abuse in Read more…
Denounce crimes of priests
Only secular law can bring justice to French victims of clerical abuse.
By Keith Porteous Wood – October 8, 2021 An inquiry commissioned by the Catholic Church into clerical abuse in France has just concluded that victims of both clerics and laicity (teachers, for example) totalled around a third of a million since 1950. In no country in the world has such Read more…
Denounce crimes of priests
Clerical abuse victims are being betrayed. The state must act now.
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…
Denounce crimes of priests
The French State and clerical abuse
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…
Denounce crimes of priests
Ireland’s mother and baby homes scandal shows the necessity of separating church and state
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…
Denounce crimes of priests
French Justice convicts former nuncio for multiple abuse, but penalty derisory
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…
Denounce crimes of priests
FRENCH CLERICS’ IMMUNITY TO THE LAW
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…